The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC; french: Banque de développement du Canada) is a

Crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

and

national development bank A national development bank is a development bank created by a country's government that provides financing for the purposes of economic development of the country. List of development banks Americas * Business Development Bank of Canada * Brazili ...

wholly owned by the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

, mandated to help create and develop Canadian businesses through financing, growth and transition capital,

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...

and advisory services, with a focus on

small and medium-sized enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Bank ...

. Founded in 1944, its corporate headquarters is located in Montreal and it has more than 123 business centres working with 60,000 clients.BDC Annual Report, 2017
Retrieved 2018-01-23 BDC's

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The ...

obligations, secured by the Government of Canada, are issued to

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

and

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

institutions.

History

The bank was established by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...

as the Industrial Development Bank (IDB) in September 1944. IDB was initially an arm of the

Bank of Canada The Bank of Canada (BoC; french: Banque du Canada) is a Crown corporation and Canada's central bank. Chartered in 1934 under the ''Bank of Canada Act'', it is responsible for formulating Canada's monetary policy,OECD. OECD Economic Surveys: C ...

, and the Governor of the Bank was also Chief Executive Officer of the IDB. During its first years, the bank's main role was to help small "industrial enterprises" convert from military production to peacetime operations after World War II. IDB was one of the first and largest development banks in the world. The ''Industrial Development Bank Act'' was first amended in 1952 to allow the bank to offer financing to companies in the commercial airlines industry. By the mid-1950s, one in ten planes in Canada was financed by IDB. Later, the ''Industrial Development Bank Act'' was amended twice more to allow the bank to lend to companies in almost all industries. By 1964, 20 years after its foundation, IDB had 22 branches across Canada, covering main cities such as Halifax,

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

, including operations in relatively rural areas. In the mid-1970s, the bank added consulting and training to its financial offerings to help entrepreneurs better manage their businesses. In 1975, its name was changed to Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB), and its

operations were started. At the time, the bank was known as "a

lender of last resort A lender of last resort (LOLR) is the institution in a financial system that acts as the provider of liquidity to a financial institution which finds itself unable to obtain sufficient liquidity in the interbank lending market when other faci ...

"—supporting businesses in difficulty. In 1995, the ''

Business Development Bank of Canada Act The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC; french: Banque de développement du Canada) is a Crown corporation and national development bank wholly owned by the Government of Canada, mandated to help create and develop Canadian businesses thr ...

'' was passed, leading to a new name and mission for the bank. It mandated BDC to promote

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

, focusing on the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to fill gaps in the market and maximize financing alternatives for businesses by offering services that were complementary to those available from other

financial institutions Financial institutions, sometimes called banking institutions, are business entities that provide services as intermediaries for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial insti ...

. BDC is financially self-sustaining. Since 1998, it has been profitable and paid a total of more than $746 million in dividends to its sole shareholder, the Government of Canada. Every ten years, the

Minister of Industry The industry minister is a cabinet position in a government. The title may refer to the head of the governmental department that specializes in industry. This position may also be responsible for trade and employment, areas that fall under the mi ...

must conduct a review of the provisions and operations of the BDC Act. The last legislative review was completed in December 2014. In April 2021, the Bank announced the appointment of

Isabelle Hudon Isabelle Hudon (born 1967) is a Canadian businesswoman and diplomat. She is currently the President and CEO of the Business Development Bank of Canada. From 2017-2021, she served as Canadian Ambassador to France and Monaco. She was the first ...

as President and Chief Executive Officer as of August of the same year, at the end of the term of current CEO Michael Denham.

Services

BDC offers loans and advisory services with a focus on small and medium-sized companies. It reports to Parliament through the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. BDC Capital, a subsidiary of BDC, offers specialized financing, including venture capital, equity as well as growth and business transition capital. BDC's Venture Capital arm makes strategic investments in Canadian companies through its Energy/Cleantech Fund, Healthcare Fund and IT Fund. Notable investments include

GradeSlam Paper is an educational technology company that partners with schools and school districts to provide students with free, unlimited, 24/7 tutoring. The platform has more than two million users across the United States. The company is headquartered ...

, Q1 Labs, Radian6,

Canopy Labs Canopy Labs is a customer analytics company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with offices in San Francisco. It was founded in 2012 and offers SaaS marketing analytics for businesses and organizations.Ha, AnthonyY Combinator-Backed Cano ...

D-Wave Systems D-Wave Systems Inc. is a Canadian quantum computing company, based in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. D-Wave was the world's first company to sell computers to exploit quantum effects in their operation. D-Wave's early customers include Loc ...

, CoolIT Systems and Klipfolio Dashboard. BDC is a complementary lender, offering

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

loans and

investments Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing is ...

that fill out or complete services available from

private-sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment Th ...

financial institutions. It also provides advice to businesses through its advisory services division.

Events and competitions organized by BDC

Launched by FBDB in 1979, Small Business Week is a yearly celebration of entrepreneurs and their contribution to Canadian society. A wide range of activities are held across the country during the third week of October. It became a nationwide event in 1981.

Tax Exemption

BDC is exempt from taxes imposed by the Income Tax Act.

Recognition

BDC was named among Canada's Top 100 employers from 2007 to 2018. BDC Capital won multiple Deal of the Year Awards from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association in the venture capital category. It won in 2011, for its investment in Radian6 Technologies Inc.; in 2012, for its investment in Q1 Labs Inc.; and again in 2014, for its investment in Layer 7 Technologies.

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Banks of Canada Federal departments and agencies of Canada Canadian federal Crown corporations Companies based in Montreal Banks established in 1944 1944 establishments in Quebec Benefit corporations Small business Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada B Lab-certified corporations