Personal Finance Canada

While I'm no expert, I think the big Canadian banks (I'd say Big 6 + Desjardins in Quebec) are well capitalize and more regulated than their American counterparts, while a failure of a smaller bank shouldn't have much impact since it could be absorbed easily through CDIC or provincial equivalents.

Also, when it comes to mortgages, our banks are way less exposed to risk, as all mortgages are in fine variable rate since you can't get a longterm fixed rate mortgage in Canada, so most of the risk has been transferred to customers. And due to the concentration in the banking industry, the government would IMO be there to support the banks anyway should something happen.

So, maybe I'm biased, but I don't think there is much risk, even though things are going to get tougher with the current economic situation, so we may see individuals and companies defaults rising, and banks taking part of the hit.

A bank run is never out of the question, but with government support and CDIC coverage, most people should be covered anyway. Should something happen though, the government/CDIC could easily increase coverage as it worked well in the US to stabilise things out and printing money is much cheaper than having to go through a paradigm shift in the finance industry.