The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, March 25, edition that from March, 2003, until today, the five largest Canadian banks rewarded their shareholders with total returns, including dividends, of between 9 and 11.7 per cent a year. The Globe's Ian McGugan writes that meanwhile, investing in bank stocks in the United States, Britain and the euro zone has been an exercise in masochism over the past 20 years. The success of Canadian banks is laid out in a 2013 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, which attributes the stability of the system to its top-heavy structure. A single strong regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, oversees them. This system is much easier to supervise than its counterpart over the border. Mr. McGugan says Canadian banks remain highly rated, stable institutions that are unlikely to fail. However, he says their stocks seem quite vulnerable to a sustained period of lacklustre performance. In fact, Mr. McGugan says that period may have already started. Over the past five years, the stocks of four out of five of Canada's largest banks have lagged behind the broad stock market. Mr. McGugan says this many not be a temporary aberration.