One difference between canadian and U.S. bankers, aside from the regulatory environments in which they operate, may be their sense of humor.
That's the conclusion from watching Peter Aceto, the CEO of ING Direct Canada, play along in a recent "Daily Show With Jon Stewart" skit that contrasted financial regulation in the United States and its neighbor to the north.
Regulation "definitely slows things down a little bit, but the Canadian system has not had a crash in 150 years or even longer," Aceto tells Jason Jones, a correspondent for the mock news program on Comedy Central.
The executive notes that Canada's banks weathered the housing crisis, the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the 1987 stock market crash and the Great Depression all without much effect. "A ridiculous claim substantiated by nothing more than facts," Jones deadpans later.
A spokeswoman for ING Direct Canada says Aceto's participation in the segment came after his office learned the "Daily Show" was looking to compare the U.S. and Canadian banking systems.
"It could have been risky for the bank but they assured us that the pun was to be on the U.S. banking system," says the spokeswoman, Lisa Naccarato. The interview, she adds, was not scripted.
"That's who Peter is," Naccarato says. "He likes to do things that are different."
For his part, Aceto took to Twitter the day after the segment aired in late June to tell his roughly 12,300 followers he "had a great time" doing the program, as difficult as it was "to keep a straight face."
There was "definitely laughter after the camera turned off," Aceto admits in his tweet. "I'm only human."
The segment did not include the viewpoints of a traditional U.S. banker. Instead, hedge fund manager John Tabacco provided the rebuttal. Following up on a reader complaint about having a hedge fund manager represent the U.S. banking industry, American Banker contacted Comedy Central, but a spokeswoman did not respond to a request for a comment.
In the segment, Tabacco tells Jones that too much regulation would end with the United States "looking a hell of a lot more like Canada." He concedes the United States has suffered more through bubbles and bursts, but says "if you're educated and you're prepared, you should be able to profit."
Aceto-he was serious here-rejects this as justification for less regulation, vehemently disagreeing when Jones tells him to forget about everyone else who suffers in a downturn. "I would never, ever say that," Aceto says. "Oh my god," Jones laments, "somebody please teach these people how to bank."
