Canadian Western Sees Growth Amid Oil Decline

Canadian Western Bank, a regional lender based in oil-rich Alberta, will weather plunging crude prices by focusing on business banking and trying to take market share from larger rivals, Chief Executive Officer Chris Fowler said.

“We’ve been through a number of ups and downs in the commodity cycle and certainly managed our way through each of them and continued to grow,” Fowler, 55, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “We’ve often found in downturns that other banks that don’t have their head office here become less aggressive,” allowing the lender to gain market share, he said.