By Tom Bradley

There has been a lot written about Canada’s asset-backed commercial paper debacle. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to sort it all out, given that everyone has an axe to grind on the issue.

Diane Urquhart is an independent analyst who I have followed for many years. I became aware of her during the mid-80s when we were both equity analysts on Bay Street and followed some of the same stocks. She got my attention because she knew way more about the insurance companies than I could ever hope to know. She was the research director at Burns Fry and, subsequently, ScotiaMcLeod. I give you this background because last week Diane published a terrific report on the ABCP issue. She titled it Another Made-in-Canada Defective Investment Product. It filled in some of the blanks for me and highlighted how difficult it is going to be to solve the problem.

For those who are interested in the topic, or have been impacted financially, I highly recommend giving this report a read.