Canada’s Banks Avoid Depression-Era Runs

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the United States saw waves of bank failures and panicked customers rushing to withdraw their money, which deepened the economic crisis. In contrast, Canada experienced no major bank runs, largely because its banking system used nationwide branch banks and tighter regulations that discouraged the kind of fragile, small local banks common in the U.S. As a result, Canadian banks remained stable throughout the period, and the financial shock never spiraled into the same sort of banking collapse seen south of the border.

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