The Financial Post reports in its Saturday, May 20, edition that one of the last times a Canadian bank ran into trouble, HSBC Holdings came to the rescue. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that history will not repeat itself in the case of Home Capital Group (HCG). HSBC's Canadian unit head Sandra Stuart says: "This isn't something for us right now. We were in the subprime business and we had a subprime portfolio that performed very well, and we took a decision to exit it. We understand deeply what it takes to run a subprime book, and at this stage I would say we're not interested."
Other Canadian financial firms earlier this month ruled out an outright purchase of HCG, including Canadian Western Bank and alternative lender Equitable Group. HSBC's case is noteworthy because of the bank's history in Canada.
Ms. Stuart has experience with a bank failure. She was a teller at Bank of British Columbia (BBC) when the lender ran into trouble. She became a part of HSBC when BBC was acquired by the London-based lender in November, 1986.
BBC's woes followed the failures of Canadian Commercial Bank and Northland Bank of Canada in 1985, when their energy-heavy loan books deteriorated.
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