Preface

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Profession: LSM, B.A., LL.B., M.A., D.Phil., D.D., F.R.S.C. Of the Bars of Ontario and Nova Scotia Chancellor's Professor and Professor of Law, Carleton University
• Pages: 15-16

Page 15

When Jeffrey Miller of Irwin Law suggested that it was possible to write a book of not more than 400 pages on banking law for the Essentials of Canadian Law series, I was skeptical. After all, big institutions and big bodies of law require big books, and typical banking law texts are closer to 1,000 pages, if not considerably more. However, here is that little book about banking law of about 400 pages.

To achieve this target, I kept continuously in mind the introductory student and the consumer for whom this book was written. The needs of this audience explain the topics chosen for inclusion and those omitted, as well as the degree of detail in which the topics included are discussed. Certain parts of the Bank Act, including the 2007 amendments, for example, are included in some detail, in particular, those setting out the corporate governance structure for banks and the types of activities in which banks are permitted to engage in Canada. Considerably less is included about foreign banks, bank subsidiaries, and bank holding companies, partly because much of the Act relating to these mirrors the parts relating to banks, but also because they are of considerably less relevance to a consumer’s everyday banking concerns. Again, a number of the more esoteric regulations and guidelines are also omitted since their content is largely of interest to bank regulators. On the common law side, the focus is on bank account operation, including paper and electronic payment orders, but virtually nothing is said about letters of credit, international banking and trade law, or complex lending and securitization issues.

A special challenge posed for any writer on banking law today is the fast-changing nature of electronic banking and the challenges posed by non-bank third party payment providers to...