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dave said
Can anybody share a thought on Street capital financial corp. is as safe as major banks in canada?  

Street Capital Financial Corp. was continued about 10 years ago (perhaps more) as as Street Capital Bank of Canada that is, in turn, owned by Street Capital Group, Inc. The Ontario superior court judge has approved the arrangement transaction that would see Street Capital Group become a wholly-owned subsidiary of RFA Capital Holdings, Inc., and OSFI and Minister of Finance approval remain the outstanding approvals but are expected before year's end.

In terms of its safety, I'd argue it's one of the safest in that they essentially sell most of their mortgages into third party mortgage securitization vehicles, retaining only a minimal (if any) interest in said mortgages. They then become the mortgage servicer, for a very modest annual fee, that sees them handle all of the reporting and payment collection on behalf of the securitization vehicles. They're starting to get into on balance sheet prime mortgages, at a time when Home Trust and Equitable Bank are, interestingly, starting to dip their toes into off-balance sheet mortgages, but they're quite far behind everyone else and the mortgage market changes have significantly advantaged the Big 6 incumbent on balance sheet lenders. As a result, Street has struggled with profitability but, in terms of balance sheet risk, it is low, I'd argue, and they're very well capitalized with capital ratios up to double the required regulatory minimums.

You don't specify whether you're looking for a Street mortgage or a GIC? Prior to to the go-private transaction, Street severed its relationship with a third-party developer of a core banking and online banking platform to allow them to offer direct-to-consumer GICs initially and eventually HISAs. They've retained the intellectual property from that, which they could decide to pursue again in the future, but in the meantime, they're focusing exclusively on brokered GICs. They do not offer brokered HISAs. GIC rates are in the upper tier of the brokered GIC deposits. As a result, the writedown they took impaired the book value of the company significantly, which allowed RFA to come in with a rock-bottom bid.

Cheers,
Doug

Disclosure: I am a beneficial shareholder of Street Capital Group, Inc., who voted "no" to the arrangement transaction for two reasons, namely that (1) it undervalued the company's long-term growth potential and (2) the poor management of CEO Duncan Hannay, who, embarrassingly, received more "withhold" votes than "for" votes at the 2019 AGM, which forced him to tender his resignation from the board - the results of which a special committee is looking into whether to accept (suspect they're stalling until the go-private transaction is effected and he can stay on the board, or they'll have him resign from Street Capital Group's holding company board but remain on the Street Capital Bank of Canada subsidiary board, as required by the Bank Act)