By Tom Bradley

“Should Ed Clark, a 50-goal scorer, be paid the same as a good two-way winger on a deep team, a dependable defenseman, a second-line center and a penalty-killing specialist?”

With the NHL finals about to start, it seems like a good time to update our compensation table for the CEO’s of the big five banks. In 2012 (Can I Join the Club?), we mused about how little differentiation there was between the five (thus the hockey analogy). Last year (You’re Richer Than You Think), there was some improvement, with an almost $4 million gap between RBC’s Gord Nixon ($13,731,877) and BMO’s Bill Downe ($9,600,553).

This year, the standings didn’t change much (the 50-goal scorer moved up a notch) and the dispersion was about the same. As well, all the CEO’s were within a dental claim of taking home the same paycheque as the year before.

As these numbers would indicate, there’s been a ‘steady state’ feel to Canadian banking over the last year or so – i.e. awesome profits, continued dependence on domestic consumer banking, an intense focus on wealth management and no bold new directions.

It also feels, however, that some differentiation is about to emerge. Next year, TD and BNS will have new names on the list and the success attributable to the different strategies around foreign operations, wealth management and Canadian real estate may become more apparent. In other words, will the rookies get paid right away, or will they have to establish themselves? Will TD and BNS’s profits in the U.S. and Caribbean show a better trend? And will it be revealed that one or more of the banks were too dependent on the ramp-up of consumer debt in Canada?

Stay tuned. And go Kings.