Here's to a season of peace, good laughs and memories with those you hold dear. Amidst the warmth of the holidays, we express our heartfelt gratitude for your membership in the MLN community. And as we all reflect on the year gone by, may our focus turn with

The thorn in big banks' side will soon be gone. After a shoddy review by the Competition Bureau, the Finance Minister has given HSBC's merger with RBC the bureaucratic blessing we all saw coming. HSBC was the one Big 6 challenger with low enough uninsured funding costs

⏩The short of it: Overpopulating and underbuilding is a recipe for absurd housing costs. Here's a look at six resulting implications, plus six opportunities for mortgage pros. For originators ready to dodge the stats and dive straight into dollar signs, the business strategy bits are near the middle.

Rate cut optimism took a temporary detour today as inflation decided to stick it to economists. Instead of falling to 2.9% as Bay Street's number crunchers expected, it parked itself stubbornly at 3.1%. The average core inflation reading was 3.45%, also refusing to budge from