Listen to the people who do business in Ontario

Ontario has provided a rich eco-system for the growth of a wide range of financial services companies, organizations and related institutions.

Apex Fund Services Ltd

The economic storm that shook the Western world cast a bright spotlight on the soundness and strengths of Canada's financial services sector.

Bermuda-based Apex Fund Services is just one of the growing number of global firms deciding that Ontario, the home of Canada's financial industry, ticks all the right boxes as a prime location for expansion. More...

Hedge Fund Hotel

It takes an entrepreneurial vision to see an opportunity where others might only see competition and a crowded field. Sarah Barham and William Woods, co-founders of Ontario's Toronto-based Hedge Fund Hotel, saw an opportunity to create successful businesses and a unique range of services for one of the fastest growing and most profitable segments of the financial services world: hedge funds. More...

ICICI Bank Canada
Sriram H. Iyer, President and CEO

"Canada is an excellent place to do business. In less than a decade, ICICI Bank Canada has grown from zero to an operation with $5.3 billion in assets and it is active in all provinces and territories with a diverse customer base. This can be largely attributed to Canada's knowledgeable consumers, an open market that welcomes international players and a secure regulatory system. Our bank has also benefited from the tremendous pool of talented and highly educated workers in Ontario. We have been able to engage many quality staff locally and they have been integral in our bank's tremendous growth. We are extremely pleased to have chosen Ontario as the home of ICICI Bank Canada."

Context: ICICI Bank Canada is a subsidiary of Mumbai-based ICICI Bank Limited, which is India's largest private sector bank and the second largest bank in the country with consolidated total assets of US$120 billion as of March 31, 2011.

Northern Trust Canada
Robert J. Baillie, President and CEO

"When Northern Trust established a centre of excellence for portfolio analysis, our Toronto office offered the right mix of investment talent and connectivity for this global capability. Ontario's financial community benefits from a well-educated and highly skilled workforce, a perfect fit for Northern Trust's client base of sophisticated individual and institutional investors. As a global financial institution, Northern Trust has offered asset management and asset servicing from our Toronto office for 20 years. We understand the advantages offered by Ontario and our new portfolio analysis desk demonstrates our commitment to doing business here."

Context: Established in Chicago more than 120 years ago, Northern Trust today is the largest administrator of offshore private equity funds in Europe and one of the world's leading providers of institutional index management services.

Manulife Financial
Michael R. Landry, Vice President Corporate Development

"Since Manulife was established in 1887, we have grown into one of the world's leading insurance and financial services companies. We serve clients both within Canada and in more than 20 other countries and territories. We began doing business in the United States in 1903 and in Asia in 1897 - and today, we have one of the most extensive Asian operations of anyone in the financial services space. With our global head office in Toronto, we have found in Ontario the talent, technologies and forward-thinking business environment that have helped us build a company that thrives on change, new opportunities and meeting the needs of customers worldwide."

Context: Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of clients in 22 countries and territories worldwide.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Canada
Colin Lindsell-Ocio, CTO

"In the highly complex and dynamic world of global banking, it is critical to have the very best people. Our growing technology center in Toronto benefits from the breadth and depth of the banking and IT talent pool, the world-class education and research centers, the cost of doing business, the inclusive environment, and the high quality of life for our employees. We continue to be impressed by the calibre of our technologists in Toronto who everyday deliver superior services to our global business partners."

Context: In 2008, Merrill Lynch selected Toronto for a new technology center that today houses a number of Centers of Excellence where technology teams create innovative systems and solutions for a wide range of Merrill Lynch businesses worldwide.

OMERS
John Ruffolo, Senior Vice-President and Head of Knowledge Investing

"Toronto is the hub of an incredible number of innovative companies active in the knowledge-based industry sector including leaders in technology, media, telecommunications, clean tech and life sciences. This makes the city a competitive player in the global knowledge economy. From a big-picture point of view, Toronto is developing a suite of cohesive and strategic policies that will cement the conditions for success in the knowledge-based sector. Toronto is therefore a natural home of OMERS Strategic Investments, as it carries out its mission of incubating new investment platforms that will further OMERS' reputation as a pension-based investment enterprise unlike any other in the world."

Context: OMERS (Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System) is one of Canada's largest pension plans, managing $53 billion in net assets on behalf of 400,000 members.

WatRISQ
Thomas F. Coleman, Ophelia Lazaridis University Research Chair, Director, WatRISQ

"With more than 40 active research faculty members and another 40+ corporate members, the University of Waterloo's Research Institute in Insurance, Securities and Quantitative finance (WatRISQ) is not only a world-class centre in financial risk management, it is also perhaps the largest institute of its kind in the world. The financial crises of 2008-2009 demonstrated that as global financial systems become ever-more complex, it becomes increasingly important to be able to identify, analyze and manage the associated risks. We contribute to the growth of that knowledge by offering state-of-the-art programs at Waterloo and workshops around the world, as well as working with industry and government partners to develop more effective solutions in risk management and finance."

Context: The insurance industry has long been one of the economic pillars of Waterloo, Ontario. The University of Waterloo's Faculty of Mathematics is the world's largest faculty in the mathematical, statistical and computer sciences. A marriage of the two fields was almost inevitable.