Life and health insurers posted the largest percentage gain from the previous quarter
The importance of financial services institutions to the overall Canadian economy is highlighted in new data from Statistics Canada.
The agency’s quarterly financial statistics for enterprises shows the net income before tax (NIBT) reported by Canadian industries and broken down in the financial and non-financial sectors.
For the first quarter of 2025, total NIBT was up 2.7% quarter-over-quarter to $161.2 billion. The percentage gain for financial industries was 7.2% while non-financial industries gained at just 0.9%. The financial sector’s aggregate NIBT was up $3.2 billion to $47.2 billion.
Eight of the thirteen component industries in the financial sector recorded increases with banking and other depository credit intermediation accounted for the largest share in dollar terms with an increase of $2.8 billion (31%) to $12 billion thanks to increased net interest income. Total operating revenue (seasonally adjusted) gained 1% or $788 million to $83 billion.
Life, health, and medical insurers saw NIBT rise by $435 million (34%) to $1.7 billion driven by higher net revenue, while property and casualty insurers dropped $733 million (21%) to $2.8 billion, led by higher total claims and expenses. Each saw total operating revenue (seasonally adjusted) pass $24 billion with gains of $4.3 billion for life, health, and medical; and $2.7 billion for P&C.
Securities and commodity exchanges, portfolio management and miscellaneous investment activity gained $379 million (5%) to $8.1 billion. However, this sector’s total operating revenue (seasonally adjusted) was down 2% or $339 million to $15.8 billion.
For non-financial industries, NBIT was up by $999 million to $113.9 billion with oil and gas exploration leading with $3.8 billion followed by petroleum and coal manufacturing with a $1.5 billion gain following four consecutive quarterly declines. Construction gained $383 million.
