by Scott Ronalds

There was an article in the Globe this week that highlighted just how slow Canada’s banks are at transferring clients’ money to other institutions.

The focus was on the time it takes, in days, to close out an [investment] account at one of the banks and transfer the proceeds to a robo-advisor. Bank of Montreal and Scotiabank were singled out as having the slowest transfer times, at 24 days and 21 days, respectively (based on data provided by Wealthsimple, a robo-advisor). RBC, TD and CIBC weren’t much better.

We’ve written about this topic a number of times because it’s an embarrassment to our industry. And it drives investors crazy (check out the comments section in our aforementioned blog).

Our own research draws similar conclusions in terms of the time it takes to complete a transfer, and who the worst offenders are. Interestingly, our data shows that fund companies such as Mackenzie, AGF, and CI transfer funds very quickly (three days, on average), and direct distributors such as Mawer, Leith Wheeler and PH&N often take only 1-2 days to process transfers. At Steadyhand, we process all orders (in or out) the day we receive them.

The big banks made $35 billion in profits last year ($1,000 for every man, woman and child living in Canada). It’s due time they invest some of that in their systems and processes.