Are PC Financial Services and CIBC the same bank? | Page 3 | Simplii Financial | Discussion forum

I agree that may be a better statement to make, Loonie, that is what Home Trust says vis a vis Oaken Financial. However, one could easily glean this same information from the CDIC website and note that no CDIC member called "Oaken Financial" exists.

That's why institutions create CDIC pages.

I never said you're stupid or meant to imply as such (please don't say that). I'm simply stating it's easy to get confused with multiple brands, multiple service channels and different legal entities.

I just don't see how it couldn't more more clear. Perhaps it wasn't as clear as in the past, but since they relaunched their website a few years ago, you can clearly see the "President's Choice Financial" brand/logo on the main page. As part of that logo, they've even added the words "service providers listed below," implying that "President's Choice Financial" is not a legal entity in itself.

One would then logically follow their way down to the site's footer, on any page, and it says:

"‡ President's Choice Financial MasterCard is provided by President's Choice Bank.
† President's Choice Financial personal banking services are provided by the direct banking division of CIBC. Banking services not available in Quebec."

One sees two entities are providing very separate services under the same brand name, "President's Choice Financial". As well, they also provide CDIC disclosures on their website, on a separate page and in your customer statements. If one is curious who "President's Choice Bank" is, they can Google it, locate its Basel Pillar 3 disclosures on the Loblaw Companies' corporate website.

Part of the reason they do it this way is because Loblaw wants to retain the MasterCard business. They use the banking services from CIBC as a "feeder," along with their own cashiers and multi-channel sourcing activities, to drive credit card adoption.

Would it be more clear if they used separate legal entities bearing the "President's Choice Financial" name? Such as "President's Choice Bank" and "President's Choice Financial Bank," with the fictional latter one being owned by CIBC? No. I disagree. Would it be better to use a separate brand for the banking services? Perhaps, but that's not what they want.

I disagree wholeheartedly that it's simply not clear. I don't bank with them (I'm a Tangerine fan!) but I think most people understand the difference. One need only follow their CDIC page and/or their customer statements, account agreements and myriad other sources to realize this.

As for the "President's Choice Bank"-issued GICs, you won't find them anywhere on the "President's Choice Financial" website - and that's deliberate. That would actually add to the confusion. They are also not available in your own name - you are the beneficial owner, sure, but they're indirectly held in the name of your broker, by way of a segregated account in book-entry nominee form.

As an aside, you might check out the "Canadian Direct Financial" website. They are a division (and division is just a fancy word for "branch", in case you were unclear on that - same as with PC Financial) of Canadian Western Bank yet mention nothing except a small bit of text in the footer. No CDIC disclosure page either. That's actually more confusing, wouldn't you agree?

Please, if you still don't understand it, don't spread FUD about "worrying if my money is safe" and crap like that. That makes no sense and I can't stand that.

Cheers,
Doug

Loonie, one quick note on the "FUD" comment (since you brought it up). I said that because you went off a bit "half-cocked" in your previous post (see above) basically stating it's still unclear, no matter how much clarification I provided and, because of this, you and anyone considering doing business with "PC Financial" should do otherwise.

As well, as Brian said above, I've explained things well. You don't even have to read PC Financial's entire "account agreement" to understand the relationship to CIBC and that your account is held on CIBC's books - for CDIC or otherwise. It's in the one-page disclosure you get when you open an account, on the front page(s) of any brochure/pamphlet you also receive, in the footer on their website, via contact centre agents if you phone and ask who holds your account and in myriad other disclosures.

I like their multi-partner operating model. It makes sense - and it also allows Loblaw the flexibility to switch partners should they need to down the road and the previous partner would need to stop operating under their brand name. I also like Tangerine's very different branded operating model. Both are good - neither one is better; just different.

I also prefer Tangerine as, from what I've read, they are a little more flexible on ATM deposit release/"cash back" limits in terms of ATM deposits than President's Choice Financial. That said, as Brian has stated above, PC Financial offers free cheque books (a nice feature!) and, presumably, a more robust remote deposit capture (supposedly coming this fall, according to PC Financial's social media team) feature in their mobile banking app (likely very similar to CIBC's).

That said, once I close my HSBC accounts & safe deposit box, as well as either my Hubert or Implicity account, I'd definitely consider opening up a PC Financial account as a secondary account - for expanded service.

Cheers,
Doug

Doug:

I have now moved a significant portion of my funds from RBC to PC Fin. Why? You ask!

Well, I re-read the RBC terms and conditions and their definition of "net new money" translates into "money deposited into an eSavings account from another institution".

I moved $60k came from Tangerine to my chequeing account (as that is what is linked) and from there I moved it to my eSavings account. This morning I had a very short talk with their 800 folk.

Me: Is my $60k eleigible?
Them: No - you should have moved it directly to the eSavings account.
Me: Thanks -- I'll move it to PC Financial!

And I did! (And I still dislike PC Fin's transfers as I couldn't set it up for "today" but had to set it up for "tomorrow".

Greg