RBC Royal Bank is sending refunds of $25 million to 250,000 of its GIC clients because the corporation confused simple with compound interest.
Just imagine for a moment that a Canadian government had done that. Can’t you imagine the procession of pundits — from Terence Corcoran to Michael Walker to Tom D’Aquino — all citing this as proof that the public sector should never, ever be trusted with your money?
(Incidentally, the RBC web site headlines this news item thusly: RBC Royal Bank makes interest adjustment on certain non-registered GICs. Ah, understatement.)
Thanks for this, Rob. This will be another one for my (now virtual) file of “examples to pull out the next time a right wing politician tells people that government should be run more like a business”.