History
ATB was created by the first Social Credit ministry under William Aberhart on September 29, 1938, after earlier attempts to place Alberta's banks under the provincial government's control were thwarted by the federal government. The first Alberta Treasury Branch was opened in Rocky Mountain House on September 29 of that year. ATB is the most significant surviving remnant of social credit economic policies in Alberta.
ATB was the subject of scandal in the late 1980s after clients such as Peter Pocklington's Gainers Foods and the Ghermezian Brothers' West Edmonton Mall defaulted on loans that were often granted for political reasons.
In the 1990s, the government reformed ATB with the intention of transforming it into a competitive financial institution. An independent board of directors was established in 1996. On October 8, 1997, ATB formally became a provincial crown corporation. Since then, it has operated under a board of directors selected by the Alberta government. It adopted the moniker ATB Financial in January 2002.
Read more about this topic: ATB Financial
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