This article appears in the June 2023 issue of Investment Executive. Subscribe to the print edition, read the digital edition or read the articles online.
The first Investment Executive Brokerage Report Card, published in May 1993, involved eight firms, many of which no longer exist in the same form.
That Report Card included Burns Fry Ltd. and Nesbitt Thomson Inc. (now BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc.); Levesque Beaubien Geoffrion Inc.; Midland Walwyn Capital Inc. and Wood Gundy Inc. (both now part of CIBC, the former via Merrill Lynch), RBC Dominion Securities Inc.; Richardson Greenshields of Canada Ltd. (now Richardson Wealth Ltd.); and ScotiaMcLeod Inc.
RBC DS received the top overall rating (8.29) in the 1993 Report Card. As in 2023, the firm’s highest rating in 1993 (9.55) was for “freedom from pressure to sell certain products.”
So, while the brokerage landscape has changed significantly in 30 years, the fundamental priorities of investment advisors have not. A digital presence was paramount, even then, as the 1993 Report Card noted: “If there is a strength that every broker would like to have on his or her side, it is technology.”
In 1993…
- The S&P/TSE composite index closed the year at 4,321.43
- The Bank of Canada’s interest rate was 5.09%
- Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell and Jean Chrétien all served as prime minister
- The Montreal Canadiens won a Stanley Cup
- The Toronto Blue Jays won their second World Series