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This is the second instalment in Access Denied, a four-part series on protectionism in Canada and beyond. Read part one here.

The Big Six banks probably do not need much in the way of protection. They are among the country’s most profitable companies and, judging by their expansion into the United States and elsewhere, their more pressing concern at the moment may be breaking into other markets.

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For example, Bank of Nova Scotia is growing its footprint in Latin America; Toronto-Dominion Bank has become one of the biggest retail lenders in the U.S.; Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce are duelling for customers on the streets of Chicago; and Royal Bank of Canada made its show business debut by buying Los Angeles-based City National Bank.

If anything, their would-be challengers may welcome some protection of their own, since the rules in place here can act as their own sort of moat for the banks — a kind of protectionism via regulation.