Toronto is North America’s third largest financial centre and Canada’s financial and business capital.
The Toronto region’s Financial Sector is recognized globally as sound, safe, vibrant and innovative and is ranked in the region’s top 100 best places to work. Its strengths include strategic planning, financial product development, risk management and systems design as well as training and development. Over the past several years this sector has seen many changes, including the growth of credit unions, and the diversification of product offerings.
Toronto is the centre for over 10% of Canadian economic activity, at $123 billion. It contributes 12% to Toronto’s Gross Municipal Product.
Financial institutions in Toronto CMA employ 230,000 people, 100,000 of those work in Toronto-the highest concentration of direct financial service employment in Canada. Between 2000 and 2010 the Toronto region’s Financial Service Sector’s workforce grew by 36.7%.
According to the latest census data, insurance agencies, brokers and carriers employ over 48,000 workers, about one quarter of the Toronto region’s financial workforce. There are 116,000 employees related to banking operations, investment management, brokerage and other skilled operations such as assets servicing, securities services and related corporate functions. In the area of investment services, the skills and expertise of 2,400 Certified Financial Planners, 100 Certified Alternative Investment Analysts and about 3,000 Fund Administrators serve the growing and diverse needs of clients.
Toronto’s Financial Services Sector sustains many other industries as a leading consumer of resources, including: law, accounting, information, communications, technology (ICT), education/training and business services. The Financial Sector is one of the most ICT intensive, and between 5-10% of the ICT workforce is directly employed by financial institutions and the related professional services organizations. Toronto Financial Services Alliance identifies Infrastructure Engineer and Systems Integration Developer as the most in demand technological jobs.
As of June 2010, there were 61,946 small to medium size businesses operating in the Finance and Insurance Sector. Most of these were in securities, commodity contracts, financial investment, credit intermediation, funds and other related activities subsectors. Most of the people (93%) in financial and industrial services are full-time employees.
Financial institutions have a workforce that is more than 50% female. In Securities, females make up more than 38% of the total workforce, and in Insurance females account for more than 60%.
Almost 30,000 financial service workers are now 55 years old or older-28% of the total workforce. In 1995, there were only 6,830 workers in that category. The largest percentage of workers aged 55 and older work in insurance as compared to banking and investment organizations.
Toronto’s financial services sector is a magnet for highly educated, diverse and career-motivated talent. The fifteen-year trend shows that the number of people in the industry with a university degree is growing. In 1995, there were 53,000 people with post-secondary education, there are currently 111,310, 50% of the total workforce in the region. Many have Master’s in Business Administration (MBA’s) and other financial industry designations.
The three Universities in combination with the five colleges and over 15 educational institutions in Toronto help prepare people for a career in financial services. Four of these are among the top-ranked business schools in the world.
- Toronto is one of the easiest cities in the world to do business. It’s ranked number two by Price Water House Coopers in the category “Intellectual capital and innovation”.
- Two of the largest ten global insurers operate in Toronto.
- Three of the world’s largest twenty-five banks and five of the largest Canadian banks are in Toronto
- The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is Canada’s largest security exchange, the third largest in North America and the seventh largest in the world.
- 131 of the 211 securities dealers operating in Canada are headquartered in Ontario, including 123 in the Greater Toronto Area.
- Three of the top 50 largest investment firms in Canada are based in Toronto.
- Three of the four largest property and casualty insurers in Canada are located in Toronto.
- Seven of the top 10 largest global hedge fund administrators operate in Toronto.
