Canadian banks seek access to auto leasing business, Globe reports

TORONTO (Reuters) -- Canadian banks are pushing the federal government for a broad review of their sector in the wake of the financial crisis and are asking for an array of new powers, including the right to get into the auto leasing business, the Globe and Mail newspaper said.

The banks, in submissions to the Finance Department, pointed to numerous piecemeal regulatory changes arrived at over the past three years that they said involved little consultation with the industry and that they now want looked at more closely, the paper said today.

They include new credit card regulations and a clampdown on the ability to sell insurance online.

The government reviews the banking sector every five years, and the finance minister has said this time around he only wants to deal with technical issues.

The Globe said that some banks, however, are asking for a full-scale review of the financial sector once the technicalities have been dealt with.

"It is a technical review, so we made technical recommendations. But we had the opportunity to say while you're thinking about these things, think about these other things as well," Terry Campbell, vice president of policy at the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA), told the paper.

Banks, which are currently allowed to offer car loans to consumers, are also seeking the right to get into the auto leasing business, one of the last lines of business they have been prevented from entering, the paper said.

A spokesman from the CBA -- which the Globe said collaborated with some banks, such as Bank of Montreal and Toronto-Dominion Bank, on a 40-page list of suggestions to the government -- was not immediately available to comment.