In the neoliberal reconfiguration of both national and international politi
cal economies during the 1980s and 1990s, the interests of North American f
inancial capital have apparently reigned supreme. Having ceded sovereignty
to financial markets and financial institutions, national states seem to ha
ve lost their power to control them: the genie appears to be well and truly
out of the bottle. Drawing upon an analysis of political debates in Canada
over plans by the country's largest banks to merge, this article criticall
y engages with literatures that imply that liberal strategies and corporate
politics are doomed to prevail. In exploring the reasons for the Canadian
government's rejection of the mergers, the article demonstrates the complex
relationships between geography, politics and economics in the discursive
representations of the national interest. Not only did the banks fail to un
derstand the need to lobby effectively, the paper argues, but bank finance
has gone from occupying a privileged role in the Canadian body politic to o
ne in which its interests must now compete openly against others, highlight
ing important political changes in a globalising world.