Hours after imposing steep tariffs on Canada, President Trump raised a difficulty that even the American lenders whose trigger he’s championing discover perplexing: the entry, or lack thereof, of U.S. banks to the Canadian market.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump wrote in a put up on Reality Social, “Canada doesn’t enable American Banks to do enterprise in Canada, however their banks flood the American Market.” He added sarcastically, “Oh, that appears honest to me, doesn’t it?”

Whereas this concern doesn’t typically come up in conversations with outstanding American financial institution executives, it seems to be more and more on the president’s thoughts.

Mr. Trump talked about the Canada banking concern early final month as a part of a broader criticism in opposition to what he views because the unequal financial stability between the US and its northern neighbor. Writing on Reality Social, Mr. Trump mentioned Canada “doesn’t even enable U.S. Banks to open or do enterprise.”

Right here is the precise state of play for U.S. banks in Canada:

Can U.S. banks function in Canada?

Canada’s banking sector is dominated by the “Huge Six,” the half-dozen establishments together with the Royal Financial institution of Canada and TD Financial institution. They’re permitted to take deposits, lengthen mortgages and advise company purchasers — all of the core actions for banks. And Canadian clients disproportionately nonetheless choose to do their banking in particular person, versus on-line, which means it could require a serious bodily presence for any entrant to aim to enter the market.

Moreover, U.S. banks are restricted in what they’ll do in Canada.

Overseas banks, together with American ones, should both work with a Canadian intermediary, set up a Canadian subsidiary or obtain particular authorities permission to do enterprise. Except they comply with comply with Canada’s stringent banking guidelines that embrace holding a hefty sum of cash-like belongings in reserve always, they can’t function retail branches that take deposits under around $100,000.

Given how dominant Canada’s homegrown banks are, any worldwide financial institution that tries to compete faces “a further regulatory burden for what would start as a small prize,” mentioned James R. Thompson, affiliate professor of finance on the College of Waterloo.

The upshot is that U.S. banks have minimal operations in Canada. The most important American lender, JPMorgan Chase, says it has roughly 600 staff in Canada, out of greater than 300,000 worldwide. Many worldwide banks restrict themselves to areas that don’t contain lending, equivalent to providing funding recommendation to rich Canadians or native corporations.

So Mr. Trump is inaccurate in asserting that American banks can not do any enterprise in Canada, however it’s true that they’re hamstrung of their actions.

Why is Canada so restrictive?

Whereas there are greater than 4,000 banks in the US, Canada has just some dozen, and greater than three-quarters of deposits are held by the Huge Six.

For many years, Canadian political leaders have crowed about that restrictive monetary regulatory mannequin. They argue that warding off overseas entrants within the nation’s mortgage market helped the nation largely keep away from the 2008 collapse south of its border.

In mild of Mr. Trump’s criticism, Maggie Cheung, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Bankers Affiliation, was fast to level out on Tuesday that overseas banks had been an integral a part of the banking panorama. She mentioned 16 U.S. banks had been working to some extent in Canada, with a cumulative of almost $79 billion in belongings — a statistic that the nation’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, additionally cited on Tuesday.

“American banks are alive and properly and prospering in Canada,” Mr. Trudeau mentioned.

However in relative phrases, their successes are small. U.S. financial institution belongings signify 1 to 2 p.c of the $6.5 trillion held by banks working in Canada writ giant.

“The most important obstacle confronted by U.S. banks,” mentioned Laurence Sales space, professor of finance on the College of Toronto, “is just they’ll’t compete with the Canadian banks as they don’t have the size, whereas they’ll’t take any of them over as there are restrictions on overseas possession.”

Do Canadian banks ‘flood’ the U.S.?

Worldwide banks — together with Canadian ones — are largely free to determine U.S. arms. The US is a extra engaging goal for worldwide banks than Canada, each as a result of it’s a hub for world finance and since its market permits extra unique, higher-profit lending actions like 30-year mortgages. (The most typical mortgage in Canada carries a five-year time period.)

The most important Canadian financial institution in America, TD Financial institution, operates greater than 1,000 U.S. branches by a Delaware subsidiary. That dimension places it in keeping with well-known regional lenders like Residents and Fifth Third.

The Canadian Bankers Affiliation mentioned the six largest Canadian lenders held lower than 3.5 p.c of U.S. financial institution belongings.

Is that this even a difficulty for Wall Road?

Huge U.S. banks had loads of hopes that Mr. Trump would lower laws, encourage merger exercise and slash taxes. Increasing their presence in Canada was not on the listing.

A U.S. banking trade commerce group, the Financial institution Coverage Institute, mentioned Tuesday that it had launched no statements on the matter. And up to now, no financial institution chief govt has taken up the rallying cry.

Extra urgent for the worldwide banking trade are Mr. Trump’s tariffs, which have helped push the trade’s shares down 8 p.c over the previous month, in keeping with the KBW Nasdaq Financial institution Index.