EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Toronto is making an official bid to headquarter a new multinational bank dedicated to defence financing, supported by both the provincial and federal governments.
“I'm here to make a very bold statement. Toronto should be home of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB),” said MP and vice president of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Assembly Julie Dzerowicz.
“As Prime Minister (Mark) Carney said, if we want a more secure world, we need a stronger Canada. The Defence, Security and Resilience Bank will choose its headquarters in the coming months. Canada has a choice, participate or lead. I believe Canada should lead, and I believe Toronto is ready.”
The DSRB is being established by a collective of NATO members and Indo-Pacific allies to help address a “defence financing crisis facing both governments and industry.” They’ll do this by raising capital and providing governments with low-cost, long-term funding, unlocking supply chain financing, and streamlining multinational procurement.
The Globe and Mail was first to report that Canada was in the running to headquarter the DSRB.
Last week, Premier Doug Ford and Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli met with the president of the bank’s development group, Kevin Reed, as well as former chief of the defence staff retired general Rick Hillier, to “discuss Ontario’s position as the best destination” for the bank.
That destination is, more specifically, Toronto, which officials have described as “Canada’s largest financial services hub and the second largest in North America.”
The pitch centres on the fact that Canada’s big five banks have headquarters, major pension funds and infrastructure in the city — all connected via an international airport. A pitch booklet shared by the premier’s office says that Toronto is also home to 40 foreign banks, more than half of Fortune 500 companies in financial services and the third-largest stock exchange operator in North America.
It also cites Toronto’s large workforce in financial services, technology and advanced STEM fields.
“No other Canadian city integrates capital-markets depth, interdisciplinary expertise, industrial relevance, regulatory stability and proximity to institutional champions at comparable scale,” the pitch argues.
“Establishing the DSRB in Toronto would anchor a multi-decade institution in a setting built for global coordination and long-term organizational growth — ensuring that Canada, and Ontario in particular, can play a leading role in shaping the future of defence, security and resilience finance.”
Speaking at the TMX Group on Wednesday, the Ford government said the bank would be a game-changer for the city and beyond.
“This is not just an opportunity for the bankers and the ecosystem — the accountants, the lawyers, the consulting firms, IT, risk managers, cyber security, but for manufacturing jobs right across the province and right across the country,” Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said.
“So it's right through the whole chain of academia to our talent, to our financial capital right here in Toronto, to jobs right across Ontario and Canada.”
“The bank's host city will immediately become the global capital of defence, innovation and finance. It will be a hub for hundreds of new and existing businesses,” Ford added.
At the press conference, Reed said negotiations over the bank’s charter, treaties and governance should start early next year with 12 “anchor nations.” Part of those negotiations will be the bank’s location.
“I would say that the anchoring nations that are forming today, and given our prime minister's understanding of capital markets and finance, which is unlike any other world leader at this moment in time, Canada's viewed very, very much like the honest banker,” said Reed, a longtime Canadian finance leader.
“And so whether it be the Indo-Pacific countries or the European countries, and including the U.S., we’re viewed very favourably to take the lead on this. We do have to win that vote, but I expect that at this moment in time, we're in a great spot,” he said.
He said he would expect an announcement on who those other anchor nations are in early January.
He did not say whether any others are trying to beat out Toronto, but that “frankly, any nation would love to host this bank.”
It’s unclear if any other Canadian city will be put forward as a potential headquarters for the bank, with officials saying the only other municipality under serious consideration is Montreal.
Hosting the bank in Toronto would require building a new, approximately 500,000 square-foot headquarters while the bank itself is hosted elsewhere downtown temporarily, Ford said at the TMX announcement.
“And obviously, we’ve got to go vertical, but we'll be working with the mayor, like we always do, and (we’ll) find a great location that's going to be (at the) forefront, so when people come into the city, they see something spectacular,” Ford said.
The premier did not say how much up-front spending the bank would require.
“I look at an investment, and let's first win the bid, and then we'll talk about the investments we're going to have,” he said.
Contributions to the DSRB made by NATO members could count towards their commitment to spend five per cent of GDP on defence by 2035. Prime Minister Carney has pledged to meet NATO’s previous goal of spending two per cent of GDP on defence by March 2026, to the tune of $9 billion.
The federal 2025 budget expands on that commitment, proposing $81.1 billion in defence spending over five years on Canadian Armed Forces compensation and benefits, defence infrastructure, digital infrastructure and an expansion to military capabilities.
Ottawa has also launched a new Defence Investment Agency to overhaul and streamline Canada’s defence procurement.
Carney is a strong supporter of Canada hosting the bank, officials, including Dzerowicz, said at the announcement.
The DSRB is expected to be established by the end of 2026.