If you’re looking for a place to start a career in finance, Vancouver is where you want to be.

The city is home to one of the largest financial sectors in North America, and it ranks in the top 20 globally. That combined with Vancouver’s natural beauty and its ranking as one of the most livable cities in the world makes it an ideal location to pursue a career in finance.

A recent report from the Conference Board of Canada detailed the strides being made in Canada’s financial sector and ranked the top 10 financial sectors in North America.

Vancouver was ranked the eighth-largest financial sector in the continent, placing higher than San Francisco and Calgary, which ranked ninth and 10th, respectively. The other two Canadian cities in the report, Toronto and Montreal, ranked second and sixth.

Vancouver’s financial sector also ranked 17th largest in the world.

Economic Footprint of the Financial Sector

  1. New York
  2. Toronto
  3. Chicago
  4. Los Angeles
  5. Boston
  6. Montreal
  7. Washington, DC
  8. Vancouver
  9. San Francisco
  10. Calgary

The report notes that the finance and insurance sectors are the largest contributors to GDP in Canada. Key industries within the financial sector include banking, insurance and asset management.

The nation’s five banks – RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO and CIBC – are among the 30 largest banks in the world based on market capitalization – Canada’s financial institutions provided more than $286 billion in credit to Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. And in 2019, more than 60% of investments in Canada were in responsible investment assets, reaching a total value of $3.2 trillion.

The report also noted that the finance sector in Vancouver and Canada is leading the way when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The financial sector has one of the largest female workforces in the country – 55% of its total workforce identifies as female.

And the industry has the second-highest proportion of female executive members at 23%. In 2020, 39% of board directors in financial services firms were women.

Published on May 28, 2021.