The World’s Top Strongest Banks

4 out of 5 North American Strongest Banks are Canadian

First Published Date: August 12, 2014

Business and financial news website Bloomberg recently published a report featuring the world’s strongest bank. In order to find the strongest banks, Bloomberg looked at banks with at least $100 billion in assets and five categories such as Tier 1 capital compared with risk-weighted assets, efficiency, nonperforming assets against total assets, and more.

Private banks are also included for consideration. The results? Canadian banks scored well and 3 banks are included in the list, such as Desjardins Group (3rd), CIBC (15th), and RBC (18th).

Let’s look at the top 10 banks from the report:

1.    Hang Seng Bank (Hong Kong)

2.    Desjardins Group (Canada)

3.    Norinchukin Bank (Japan)

4.    Oversea-Chinese Banking (Singapore)

5.    Qatar National Bank (Qatar)

6.    Bayerische Landesbank (Germany)

7.    DBS Group Holdings (Singapore)

8.    Pohjola Bank (Finland)

9.    Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (Sweden)

10.    Boc Hong kong Holdings (Hong Kong)

Source: Bloomberg

An important twist is that only one American bank (U.S. Bancorp) made it to the list, at the 19th position. If you look at the tops North American banks, 4 out of 5 are Canadian banks. To view the full report, visit here.

Mortgage Free by

Canadian Mortgages Stretching Further

First Published Date: August 28, 2014

A recent CIBC survey that was conducted by Angus Reid finds out that Canadians are stretching their mortgages one year further than previously thought a year ago. 58 is the new mortgage-free freedom age on an average. However, based on where you look at, the picture can be very different.

Here are some of the highlights from this survey:

– 55 percent of Canadians making extra efforts are paying their mortgage faster. It was 68 percent last year.

– Homeowners in British Columbia have the highest expected age to pay off mortgages at 66.

– In Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec the expected age to pay off mortgages is 55, 57, and 56.

– Alberta and Ontario have the highest percentage of homeowners taking extra steps to pay off their mortgages faster at 65 and 61 percent.

– British Columbia (47 percent), Quebec (48), and Atlantic Canada (48) have the lowest percentage of homeowners taking extra steps to pay off their mortgage faster.

– Small efforts can go a long way to save big time.

– For example, someone with a $250,000 mortgage (25 year at 4.99 percent interest) can save about $35,000 if they add $147 to their monthly payments.

– Nearly $30,000 on interest can be saved if the above owner makes $726 payments every two weeks, instead of one monthly payment.

– If the average Canadian tax refund ($1,600) is applied towards a mortgage every year, it would save 4 years amortization and save about $33,103 in interest.

Source: CIBC

Global Real Estate ETFs Take Off

Investors Chasing Global Real Estate ETFs

First Published Date: September 24, 2014

Who would not like the idea of buying global real estate without leaving home? No wonder global real estate ETF investments skyrocketed. As Bloomberg recently reports in an article, investors are gobbling up global real estate companies at a record pace.

According to the Bloomberg article, global real estate ETF the SPDR Dow Jones International Real Estate ETF (RWX) attracted 340 million in August, the most of any ETF that is comprised of property, mainly non-U.S. real estate.

Global real estate demand has dramatically exploded since the global financial crisis as investors started to look for a safe haven to park money and get higher returns.

As I mentioned in this article on A Dawn Journal in March, 2014, a PwC report mentioned that the global real market will grow substantially in the future due to rapid urbanization and demographic changes.

If you are looking for some global real estate ETFs, here are some places to start with your research. The iShares Global Real Estate (CGR) is a popular name trading on the Canadian exchange. On the U.S. exchanges there are SPDR DJ International Real Estate (RWX), SPDR DJ Global Real Estate (RWO), and Vanguard Global ex-U.S. Real Estate ETF (VNQI), among others.

Like any other investments, global real estate ETFs are subject to various risks such as market risk, currency risk, interest rate risk, credit risk, and so on. Also, do your homework before getting into any investments.

Hybrid, Electric, and Green Car

GREEN CAR TECHNOLOGY: THE CURRENT WAVES

First Published Date : August 23, 2014

Green car technology is a method that is adapted in an attempt to save our precious environment by avoiding the usage of fossil fuels that makes the environment polluted. Over the years researchers have been experimenting with the technology that facilitates the use of electrically maintained cars and are also trying to find a substitute to the existing vehicles that use fossil fuels. Earlier this century, it was quite shocking to know that our planet was on its threshold with respect to greenhouse effect.  The main reason behind this was known to be the usage of fossil fuels which in turn contributed to the depletion of ozone layer thereby increasing greenhouse effect. With an attempt to reduce this menace, car manufacturers across the globe began manufacturing greener ecologically aware cars.

Presently in this century, the vehicles have been manufactured with a hybrid engine which is nothing but a conservative motor engine, which is combined with the usual electric engine. These are capable of toggling between power of an electric motor and the ignition engine.  With normal speeds, the car is powered by electric motor and at high speeds; the ignition engine powers the vehicle. Here are a few green technology cars presently available:

Electrically powered vehicles have gained a lot of popularity in the recent past as they possess an electric motor, which is powered with battery packs and these packs are a combination of Nickel metal-hydride or Lithium-ion, which are charged with a connection to main power supply typically charged for an entire night.  Also, these electric cars have iterative braking system due to which the batteries are charged when brakes are applied

Currently, hybrid cars use both the electric motors and petrol engines.  The electric motor is powered by the batteries, which are charged and useful at lower speeds, while the petrol engine possesses a small unit which powers it during high speeds thereby allowing this engine to function only at optimum speed.  Also, the renewable energy sources like rapeseed; sunflower or soybean oil is used to produce biodiesel, wherein the carbon dioxide gas emitted is neutralized as it is absorbed by the fuel crop, which facilitates its growth.

Ethanol, which is a sugarcane product, contains high octane content, which increases engine performance and is broadly used in Europe wherein flexi-fuel vehicles are developed on Ford, Saab etc. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) contains propane and butane, which produces less CO2 than petrol and diesel. The internal engine can be modified because of which the vehicle can use petrol or LPG.

Fuel cells are conversion devices which provide energy from electrochemical reaction and electricity can be continually produced with the flow of reactance.  However, this technology is proven to be expensive.  Another fossil fuel is the compressed natural gas found underneath the earth surface, which also produces less CO2 gas and this gas is compressed in the cylinder and mixes well with the air before combustion, thereby making it an efficient fuel.

However with the advent of the green technology, environment awareness is being fast spread to various industries and manufacturers thereby creating efficient business opportunities to the investors. This awareness has led to the creation of vital engines with most advantageous performance and is also eco friendly. Green car technology has revolutionized the vehicle manufacturing process thereby saving our planet Earth to a certain extent.

China’s Yuan Keeps Rising

China’s Economy Improves

Published Date : September 6, 2014

China’s Yuan is on a roll. For the third straight month, it rallied against the U.S. dollar. Last year, the picture was different as the yuan tanked. As China’s economy continues to improve, the yuan has further room to climb up.

Although the yuan has gained 1.5 percent since last year’s low, the yuan is still down 1.9 percent for 2014. As recent economic data shows better growth, especially in manufacturing and real estate, the Chinese government may be lenient and let the yuan go even further.

Chinese stock markets seem to be doing just as well. The Shanghai Composite Index reached its highest level in seven months, making investors grab more blue chip stocks recently. Also, in the offshore currency market, global investors – especially hedge funds – are betting on more positive currency runs.

China, the world’s second largest economy, averaged 10 percent growth yearly for 30 years in the past. However, recently China is struggling to achieve its target of 7.4 percent growth per year. The IMF recently predicted that China’s economic growth will be 7.1 percent in 2015 and will slow down further in the future.

In the past, especially in early 2014, there were many reports and predictions pointing out the collapse of the Chinese economy. None of them proved to be correct, however, as several recent economic data show that the Chinese economy is not going downhill, but rather climbing upward.