In the good old days of Howe Street, venture stock-brokers would act as an intermediary between junior mining companies and investors. This is a somewhat murky ethical practice of the brokers having two masters, both the companies they were helping to get off the ground, and the clients with which they were to serve. Investors tolerated this conflict of interest because they knew what they were getting into, and sometimes, they made a lot of money backing early stage deals.
However, in recent years, large banks have consolidated the brokerage business, now controlling 95% of Canada’s wealth, according to some estimates. The banks do not want their brokers and clients to play in speculative securities like junior miners because of the risks and perceived conflicts of interest. Also, the big banks want to earn a management fee on assets over the long term. Short term transactional business, while excellent in boom years, is not a consistent business model for them.
These are not the only challenges facing the capital formation process for junior miners, according to veteran TSXV analyst John Kaiser. High frequency trading, discount brokerages, and declining commodity prices have all but killed the after-market for shares in junior miners. The result is a system that is collapsing on itself..