Real,

It's good to remember that around 2004-5 several of our Chartered Banks lobbied to be allowed to merge and participate directly in the US high octane securitization market (CDO3 et al) but that the Department of Finance and Bank of Canada said no; they would not be allowed to consolidate of to participate in the securitization market except in the relatively 'boring' Canadian version.

There was much moaning in the Canadian financial industry that this doomed them to indefinitely remain a backwater.  However, by 2009 6 of the 10 largest North American Banks by capitalization were Canadian Chartered Banks because of the losses incurred by the leading US Banks.

In short, regulation by Federal Government and agencies in Canada were instrumental in saving our Chartered Banks, our domestic financial system and the Canadian Government and people loads of money and the preventing a deep domestic depression from occuring here.