Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for July 7th, 2008

BCE Sale On The Rails Again?

On Friday the news broke that the purchasers in the BCE deal have finalized things and the sale should be going through, causing the stock to jump $4 per share. As a share holder I was very glad to see that, however, it seems the Dividends that I am owed for the past while, are not going to materialize, as this money is being used as part of the deal, which does not make me as happy.

I bought BCE initially, because I had no idea what to buy and figured, BCE was a good “Blue Chip” stock to buy. I later realized that the Dividends that it pays makes it an attractive stock as well (proof that the Sun shines on even an Ugly Dog’s butt every once in a while).

My guess is the BCE sale should go through, however, I don’t think that this is quite done yet either, in terms of twists and turns in the story either.

More Women in Pensions

Another interesting study from our friends at Stats Canada about Pension Plans in Canada points out that as of January 1, 2007, more of us are in Registered Pension Plans. The interesting point is that the Percentage of employees that were in a Pension plan actually dropped from 2005 to 2006 even though the total number of folks in Pension Plans actually increased.

More interestingly this increase in the raw number was seen mostly from Women joining pension plans. The percentage of women are:

Of the 5.8 million total membership, women accounted for 2.8 million, or 48.5%, while men accounted for 3.0 million, or 51.5%. In 2000, women accounted for 45.1%, and men, 54.9%

Increases for women were shared between the public and private sectors.

The number of Defined Benefit Pensions that are still under-funded is mentioned as well, and it is still a worrisome area for folks who have them (or who have been recently chucked out of them like me), however the number of Pension plans that are underfunded did decrease in 2006 from 2005 from 57% in 2005 to 45% in 2006. This is still not a good thing since 45% of the funds are unable to meet their obligations at this moment.

TD Hurt by “Rogue” Trader

Thanks to former TD employee Simon Richard Brignall, TD stocks are going to take a hit, because the company has to write off $96M in losses thanks to more “creative accounting” being done by some insiders.

During this period, Mr Brignall mismarked positions on his trading book and entered fictitious trades. This conduct, when considered by reference to the FSA’s prescribed regulatory standards for individuals, is such that it appears to the FSA that he is not a fit and proper person to perform any function in relation to any regulated activity carried on by any authorised or exempt person or exempt professional firm.

Sounds like he made a few mistakes, seems the FSA (Financial Services Authority) doesn’t think he should be doing this job, as a TD stock holder, I think I agree. Who hired this guy? Not sure they should be allowed to do that job either (In My Most Humblest of Opinions). Who was supposed to watch and make sure this guy wasn’t doing this? Not sure they should be keeping their job either.

Mr. Brignall does not appear to be the only cause of this loss, but allegedly has a great deal to do with it.