Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making the headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: Canada’s banks are in hot water. Royal Bank of Canada is fighting back against its former CFO’s wrongful termination lawsuit, while Toronto-Dominion Bank prepares for a historically hefty fine.
Also: As the railway labour dispute is forced into arbitration, another major union threatens a strike.
b. Bayesian. The superyacht was called Bayesian and was named after the Bayesian method of statistical inference. The bodies of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and five others were retrieved from the wreckage of Lynch's luxury yacht after the boat capsized during a violent storm earlier this week.
a. Text messages, instant messages and e-mails. RBC’s counterclaim cites text messages, instant messages and e-mails between its former chief financial officer and a vice-president. In those communications, they used pet names, celebrated their “anniversary date,” exchanged love poems and expressed strong feelings for each other.
c. 12 per cent. In a sign that first-time homebuyers might not choose to buy a condo, only 12 per cent of respondents in a survey of renters by real estate search portal Point2 indicated that a condo would be their first choice in buying a home.
a. 7-Eleven operator Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd. It’s 7-Eleven operator Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd. If Couche-Tard succeeds, it would be the largest acquisition the company has ever made. It would also be the largest acquisition of a Japanese company by a foreign one in history.
c. It fell to 2.5 per cent. The Consumer Price Index fell to an annual rate of 2.5 per cent in July, down from 2.7 per cent in June and matching analyst estimates, Statistics Canada said Tuesday in a report. It was the lowest annual inflation rate since March, 2021.
d. $2.6-billion. TD is now bracing for a historic fine of more than US$3-billion, including a provision of US$450-million that it earmarked in April, to settle investigations from multiple U.S. regulators. It would be the largest penalty that a Canadian bank has paid in the United States, and is believed to be the second-largest U.S. regulatory penalty levied against any bank over similar issues.
c. A toxic water leak. The fine was levied over a continuing leak of water tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic, dissolved metals and hydrocarbons from tailings ponds at its Kearl oil sands facility. It’s the maximum amount allowed under regulations, but the AER said it is still investigating other potential contraventions at Kearl.
a. Air Canada pilots. The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 5,400 aviators at the country’s largest carrier, said the vote passed with 98-per-cent support this week, putting them in a position to walk off the job as early as Sept. 17.