Thursday, December 2, 2010

CIBC Historical Effective Prime Rate, another nail in the coffin of the BC Rail trial


https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/government-finances/historical-effective-prime-rate.pdf

Link Updated: October 24, 2023

October 24, 2023 7.20% 

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  June 8, 2023:   6.95%


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 current prime rate 6.70% as of January 28, 2023

 +++++++++++++++++++

April 14, 2022  3.20%
 
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March 17, 2020  2.95%
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Update Prime Interest Rate for CIBC: Current prime rate   3.45% as of  January 18, 2018


View Historical Effective Prime Rates

During what is known as the Basi, Virk, Basi trial, a question was posed by Kevin McCullough, the lawyer for Bobby Virk, to Crown Witness Brian G. Kenning, on what was the going interest rate on an indemnity ($255 million), to which the reply came back that he had no idea, besides, the Board of Directors for BC Rail didn't put that into the agreement when it came to clinching the deal on the sale of BC Rail to CN Rail.   Who did?   The government of Gordon Campbell, of course.

For a layperson to go looking for the going prime rate, whether it be on the internet or even going so far as to ask a bank for such historical data, the first method is FREE, the second..... well I'm quite sure there would be a price tag attached, especially during the trial.


Election BC to the rescue, not that I was looking for that particular data last night, a month and a half after the $6 million payoff, I just found it at their wonderful website while doing some Dry reading where every once in awhile something makes you go WOW!!!!.   The reason I was looking for this particular information was because I wanted to know how Elections BC counted political donations.  I've kindly highlighted in Bold below, "Prime Interest Rates".

http://www.elections.bc.ca/docs/fin/407.pdf    Prime Interest Rates

"Prime Interest Rates

If a loan to a political party, constituency association, candidate, leadership contestant or a nomination contestant is made at an interest rate less than the prime rate of the principal banker to the Province of British Columbia at the time the interest rate is fixed, the benefit derived is a political contribution. The interest rates that should be used when completing the Loans and Guarantees Received (S-L1) form to calculate the amount of interest payable at the prime rate are located at the following sites:
Historical interest rates – http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/PT/bcm/histrates.shtml
Current interest rate – http://cibc.com/ca/rates/index.html

If you have any questions, please contact the Electoral Finance program area at
Elections BC."
 I clicked on the Historical interest rates without realizing there was "fin" in the link which took me to this page's contents:

"The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) is considered to be the Province’s principal banker for interest rate reference purposes. As the need to determine the prime rate of the Province’s banker arises under various enactments and instruments across government, the historical record of CIBC’s prime lending rate can be referenced below. The rates are listed from 1974 and will be updated on a periodic basis. Please refer to CIBC's Web site for the most recent rate.
View the Historical Effective Prime Rate table."

I went Hmmmmmm.   Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and wondered aloud as to whether CIBC World Markets was related to CIBC.   Would you make the same observation?   Would you be tempted to take the next step in the link to View the Historical Effective Prime Rate Table that goes back to 1974 and is updated on a periodic basis.   I did.

On page 2 of the document, top right corner... April 14, 2004, the going interest rate was 3.75%!!!!!

The indemnity that the Executive Council (Cabinet) signed off on the sale of BC Rail to CN Rail was a whopping 9%, and the really interesting thing is that the numbers show that the Prime Rate peaked on July 11, 2007 at 6.25%, and went into a steady decline, all through 2008, till September 9, 2010 at 3.00%.

So could you tell me this again, Premier Gordon Campbell, and Finance Minister Colin Hansen, and all those who are currently in the running to be the next Premier, via the BC Liberal Party, just when did you decide to implement the Harmonized Sales Tax?   Just when did the Deputy Minister of Finance become alerted to the need to Harmonize with the rest of Canada?

The government has plenty of graphs, plenty of GDP to compare to various streams of information, but just looking at the Prime Rate is good enough for me.

For more information on the background  on how the public was hosed:

http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-legitimate-exactly-is-railgate.html  The Gazetteer

http://therealstory.ca/2010-09-21/bc-liberals/bc-rail-how-badly-were-we-hosed  The Real Story

Last Update: January 13, 2014 still no change since September 9, 2010





CIBC Current prime rate 2.70% as of July 16, 2015  



April 16, 1974 10.50%
May 13, 1974 11.00%
July 24, 1974 11.50%
November 21, 1974 11.00%
January 15, 1975 11.50%
February 1, 1975 9.75%
February 26, 1975 9.00%
September 5, 1975 9.75%
March 10, 1976 10.25%
November 23, 1976 9.75%
December 24, 1976 9.25%
February 1, 1977 8.75%
June l, 1977 8.25%
March 15, 1978 8.75%
April 5, 1978 9.25%
August 1, 1978 9.75%
September 15, 1978 10.25%
October 18, 1978 11.00%
November 7, 1978 11.50%
January 5, 1979 12.00%
July 25, 1979 12.50%
September 10, 1979 13.00%
October 10, 1979 13.75%
October 26, 1979 14.75%
November 2, 1979 15.00%
March 17, 1980 15.75%
March 28, 1980 16.50%
April 3, 1980 17.50%
April 21, 1980 17.25%
April 28, 1980 16.75%
May 5, 1980 16.50%
May 12, 1980 15.75%
May 15, 1980 14.75%
May 26, 1980 13.75%
June 23, 1980 13.25%
July 21, 1980 12.75%
July 25, 1980 12.50%
August 5, 1980 12.25%
October 3, 1980 13.00%
October 10, 1980 12.75%
November 3, 1980 13.25%
November 18, 1980 13.75%
November 28, 1980 14.50%
December 5, 1980 15.50%
December 12, 1980 17.00%
December 19, 1980 18.25%
March 23, 1981 17.75%
April 20, 1981 18.00%
April 20, 1981 18.50%
May 1, 1981 19.50%
June 5, 1981 20.00%
July 24, 1981 21.00%
July 31, 1981 21.75%
August 7, 1981 22.75%
September 8, 1981 22.25%
September 14,1981 21.75%
September 21, 1981 21.25%
October 9, 1981 20.75%
October 19, 1981 20.00%
November 9, 1981 19.50%
November 16, 1981 18.00%
November 23, 1981 17.25%
January 4, 1982 16.50%
March 26, 1982 17.00%
June 4, 1982 17.50%
June 18, 1982 18.25%
July 16, 1982 17.75%
July 23, 1982 17.25%
August 6, 1982 17.00%
August 20, 1982 16.00%
September 3, 1982 15.50%
September 24, 1982 15.00%
October 8, 1982 14.50%
October 15, 1982 13.75%
November 12, 1982 13.00%
December 17, 1982 12.50%
January 7, 1983 12.00%
February 18, 1983 11.50%
April 19, 1983 11.00%
March 23, 1984 11.50%
May 9, 1984 12.00%
June 25, 1984 12.50%
June 29, 1984 13.00%
July 6, 1984 13.50%
August 10, 1984 13.00%
October 26, 1984 12.50%
November 20, 1984 12.00%
December 7, 1984 11.75%
December 21, 1984 11.25%
November 11, 1985 11.00%
February 22, 1985 11.50%
March 8, 1985 11.75%
March 29, 1985 11.25%
April 12, 1985 11.00%
April 19, 1985 10.75%
May 22, 1985 10.50%
August 23, 1985 10.25%
October 7, 1985 10.00%
January 7, 1986 10.50%
January 14, 1986 11.00%
January 31, 1986 11.50%
February 7, 1986 12.25%
February 14, 1986 13.00%
March 14, 1986 12.50%
 March 21, 1986 12.00%
April 7, 1986 11.50%
April 11, 1986 11.25%
 May 2, 1986 10.50%
May 16, 1986 10.25%
July 18, 1986 9.75%
January 23, 1987 9.25%
March 13, 1987 8.75%
April 24, 1987 9.25%
May 22, 1987 9.50%
July 31, 1987 10.00%
October 9, 1987 10.25%
October 23, 1987 9.75%
April 23, 1988 10.25%
June 3, 1988 10.75%
August 26, 1988 11.25%
September 16, 1988 11.75%
December 9, 1988 12.25%
February 17, 1989 12.75%
March 23, 1989 13.50%
February 15, 1989 14.25%
April 23, 1990 14.75%
August 17, 1990 14.25%
September 21, 1990 13.75%
November 3,1990 13.25%
December 21, 1990 12.75%
January 18, 1991 12.25%
January 31, 1991 11.75%
February 19, 1991 11.25%
April 3, 1991 10.75%
April 25, 1991 10.25%
May 22, 1991 9.75%
September 13, 1991 9.50%
October 21, 1991 9.00%
October 25, 1991 8.75%
November 7, 1991 8.50%
 December 6, 1991 8.00%
January 24, 1992 7.50%
 March 6, 1992 8.25%
April 10, 1992 8.00%
April 16, 1992 7.75%
April 16, 1992 7.50%
June 5, 1992 7.25%
June 19, 1992 7.00%
July 24, 1992 6.75%
August 6, 1992 6.50%
 Septembers, 1992 6.25%
October 1, 1992 8.25%
October 28, 1992 7.75%
November 3, 1992 7.50%
November 17, 1992 8.25%
 November 20, 1992 9.00%
December 8, 1992 8.75%
December 15, 1992 8.50%
December 15, 1992 8.25%
December 18, 1992 8.00%
December 21, 1992 7.75%
December 22, 1992 7.50%
December 23, 1992 7.25%
January 12, 1993 7.00%
January 15, 1993 6.75%
February 27, 1993 6.50%
March 4, 1993 6.25%
March 22, 1993 6.00%
July 12, 1993 5.75%
August 25, 1993 6.00%
September 16, 1993 5.75%
November 9, 1993 5.50%
March 28, 1994 6.25%
April 1, 1994 6.50%
April 4, 1994 6.75%
June 22, 1994 8.00%
July 13, 1994 7.75%
July 19, 1994 7.50%
Augusts, 1994 7.25%
September 14, 1994 7.00%
Decembers, 1994 7.50%
December 14, 1994 8.00%
January 13, 1995 8.50%
January 18, 1995 9.25%
February 21, 1995 9.50%
March 1, 1995 9.25%
March 8, 1995 9.75%
May8, 1995 9.25%
June 5, 1995 9.00%
June 14, 1995 8.75%
July 7, 1995 8.50%
July 12, 1995 8.25%
August 29, 1995 8.00%
November 1, 1995 7.75%
November 1 , 1 995 7.75%
December 20, 1995 7.50%
January 29, 1996 7.25%
February 1, 1996 7.00%
March 25, 1996 6.75%
April 19, 1996 6.50%
July 26, 1996 6.25%
August 12, 1996 6.00%
August 23, 1996 5.75%
Octobers, 1996 5.50%
October 17, 1996 5.25%
October 29, 1996 5.00%
November 12, 1996 4.75%
October 2, 1997 5.25%
November 26, 1997 5.50%
December 15, 1997 6.00%
February 2, 1998 6.50%
August 28, 1998 7.50%
September 30, 1998 7.25%
October 19, 1998 7.00%
November 19, 1998 6.75%
April 1, 1999 6.50%
May 5, 1999 6.25%
November 18, 1999 6.50%
February 4, 2000 6.75%
March 23, 2000 7.00%
May 18, 2000 7.50%
January 21, 2001 7.25%
March 7, 2001 6.75%
April 18,2001 6.50%
May 30, 2001 6.25%
July 18, 2001 6.00%
August 29, 2001 5.75%
September 18, 2001 5.25%
October 24, 2001 4.50%
November 28, 2001 4.00%
January 16, 2002 3.75%
April 17, 2002 4.00%
June 5, 2002 4.25%
July 17, 2002 4.50%
March 5, 2003 4.75%
April 16, 2003 5.00%
July 16, 2003 4.75%
September 4, 2003 4.50%
January 21, 2004 4.25%
March 3, 2004 4.00%
April 14, 2004 3.75%
September 9, 2004 4.00%
October 20, 2004 4.25%
September 8, 2005 4.50%
October 19, 2005 4.75%
December 7, 2005 5.00%
January 25, 2006 5.25%
March 8, 2006 5.50%
April 26, 2006 5.75%
May 25, 2006 6.00%
July 11,2007 6.25%
December 5, 2007 6.00%
January 23, 2008 5.75%
March 5, 2008 5.25%
April 23, 2008 4.75%
October 9, 2008 4.50%
October 14, 2008 4.35%
October 22, 2008 4.00%
December 10, 2008 3.50%
January 21, 2009 3.00%
March 4, 2009 2.50%
April 22, 2009 2.25%
June 2, 2010 2.50%
July 21, 2010 2.75%
September 9, 2010 3.00%
January 21, 2015 2.85%
July 15, 2015 2.70%
July 13, 2017 2.95%
September 7, 2017 3.20%
January 18, 2018 3.45%
October --, ---- ??.45%