Dangerous Opportunities: The Future of Financial Institutions, Housing Policy, and Governance

By: Stephanie Ben-Ishai

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Synopsis: The 2017 Home Capital saga represents the shortcomings of a financial system challenged by distinct, siloed regulatory frameworks that fail to communicate with each other. Home Capital is a publicly traded company that acts as a lender through the Home Trust Company, most often providing mortgages to clients rejected by traditional banks. Home Capital’s 2017 announcement that it required $2 billion to sustain a $600 million loss shook customer confidence, and fueled by allegations of corruption, they suffered a rapid decline in stock price. The Home Capital crisis is the most recent pre-pandemic example of systemic risk in the financial sector in Canada and highlights the invaluable opportunity that we have in avoiding past mistakes in the nearing post-pandemic economic reality. Dangerous Opportunities sheds light, using the 2017 Home Capital saga as a starting point, on the compartmentalization of regulators and its greater ramifications on board independence and corporate governance, taxation in the competitive house context, and non-bank financial institutions’ success in various jurisdictions. A hybrid of law and business, Dangerous Opportunities is a must read for those interested in the underbelly of financial institutions, and is an inspired read in the aftermath of the recent housing crisis which saw many desiring-homeowners seeking dangerous opportunities outside of the traditional banking system.