Canada’s La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Desjardins Group have set up an investment fund dedicated solely to the fintech sector and to artificial intelligence (AI) applied to finance.
What countries among the 20 largest economies are adapting quickest to using cashless systems like phones and contactless cards? New research (and nifty infographics) from global trading site Forex Bonuses reveals that Canada takes the top spot, narrowly edging out Sweden for the top position.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Canada’s big banks have joined the charge for a CA$185 million ($150 million) digital identity supercluster bid that plans to solve the identification challenges of the digital economy. According to IT World Canada, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, CIBC, TD Bank and National Bank of Canada – are on board, along […]
With the unveiling of its new corporate headquarters at One York Street in Toronto, Sun Life Financial has made it loud and clear it’s on the prowl for fintech start-ups. The super-shiny, 35-storey, 800,000 square foot office tower, is a mighty site/sight and will offer connection to Toronto’s Union (railway) Station and PATH network (i.e. […]
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), with the help of Personetics Cognitive Banking’s applications, will deliver two new services this autumn that provide AI-powered financial guidance and an automated savings programme through the bank’s mobile app. The development follows on from last month, when RBC unveiled these two digital services – called NOMI Insights and NOMI […]
There’s a new fintech challenger in town. Toronto-based STACK announced its partnership with Mastercard two weeks ahead of the beta launch of its mobile financial services app and companion prepaid card.
National Bank Investments (NBI), a subsidiary of National Bank of Canada, has opted for FactSet’s multi-asset class risk model, workstation, and analytics suite as its investment risk management and manager due diligence system.
Accenture has acquired Verax Solutions, a Toronto-based technology and systems-integration consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed. Verax is a privately-owned company founded in 2003 that employs around 180 people at offices in Toronto and Halifax. Its service areas include IT strategy, enterprise architecture consulting, project and programme management, financial risk and compliance solutions, as […]
Canada’s banking group CIBC has unveiled Simplii Financial, its new direct banking brand, signalling the end of its President’s Choice (PC) Financial consumer banking business with retailer Loblaw. Mike Boluch, EVP, direct banking, innovation and payments, CIBC, says Simplii will deliver “straightforward, no-fee everyday banking” and offer services by telephone, online, or through mobile and […]
Prospera CU, a 63,000-member credit union in British Columbia, Canada, has launched Open Anywhere, a real-time application processing across all of its digital and physical channels. The solution is provided by Central 1 Credit Union in partnership with Canadian tech heavyweight CGI.
Toronto-based NextBlock Global, a new digital asset investment company, has got itself off to a good start with the closing of an “oversubscribed” $20 million financing round. Like many other start-ups, NextBlock says it’s “disruptive” – and is setting its targets on the new digital asset economy. It says these assets, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, […]
Consumer data contextualisation company Flybits pulled in $6.5 million this week, bringing the Toronto-based firm’s total funds to $14 million, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). The Series B funding was led by Information Venture Partners. New investor Portag3 Ventures LP also participated along with existing investors Robert Bosch Venture and Trellis Capital. As a part […]
With MiFID II in mind, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has teamed with Commcise for a service that lets research funds be held in a segregated research payment account (RPA) established in the name of a buy-side client. Commcise’s technology will provide a broker-neutral, independent and un-conflicted platform to help management of the research payment […]
Canada’s banking group CIBC, fintech firm Borrowell and Equifax Canada have unveiled a free credit score for mobile banking users – a “first for a major Canadian Bank”. The credit score is accessed through the CIBC mobile banking app, and clients can get their Equifax credit score which will be updated quarterly, allowing them to […]
The results from phase two of Canada’s plan for a blockchain-powered interbank payment system reveal that it still faces many obstacles. The Bank of Canada, Payments Canada, R3 and seven commercial banks, have disclosed their report from Project Jasper, an experimental wholesale interbank payment system. First launched in 2015, the results so far show that, […]
Android Pay is set to launch in Canada on 31 May, according to sources that gave news site MobileSyrup internal documents. MobileSyrup says there are still a number of questions that need to be answered regarding the payment service, “including specific bank partners and how setting up the payment platform with a Canadian debit and […]
Payments Canada has revealed the ten paytech, artificial intelligence (AI) and regtech start-ups who will compete at its “Dragons’ Den-style competition” in Toronto. Called the FinTech Cup, a collaboration between Payments Canada, 500 Startups, and the Digital Finance Institute, it wants to help innovation, find talent, and drive funding for the finalists. Money on offer […]
Crosstown Civic Credit Union, a 31,000-member institution in Winnipeg, Canada, is modernising its digital banking delivery channels with Central 1 Credit Union. Crosstown Civic CU is implementing Central 1’s MemberDirect platform, provided on a hosted basis.
CGI, SIA and VocaLink are fighting it out to win the contract for Payments Canada’s new core clearing and settlement system. Payments Canada has invited the three suppliers to participate in a competitive procurement process for the country’s new system, called Lynx. Jan Pilbauer, executive director of modernisation and CIO at Payments Canada, says this […]
ATB Financial has joined forces with KPMG in Canada and fintech matchmaking firm Matchi to run a “Customer Onboarding Innovation Challenge”. The challenge is free to enter and open to any firm that has developed and built a solution in one of the four categories: Know your customer (KYC) – ideally the solution will be […]
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has launched a live video service to let its clients connect in real time with its advisors. Called MyAdvisor, it uses an online advice platform to digitally connect a client to an advisor, where both can view and adjust a dashboard showing the client’s savings and investment goals and establish […]
Payments Canada, an organisation that operates the country’s payment clearing and settlement system, has selected consulting firm Accenture to help it lead “Modernization” – its initiative to improve Canada’s payments ecosystem. Jan Pilbauer, executive director of Modernization and CIO at Payments Canada, calls Accenture a “strong consulting partner”. In December, Payments Canada released its plans […]
IBM and SecureKey Technologies are working together to enable a new digital identity and attribute sharing network based on IBM Blockchain. When launched later this year, consumers can use the network to verify their identity for services such as new bank accounts, driver’s licences or utilities. IBM’s Blockchain service is built on top of the […]
Ontario-based Alterna Bank says it has launched “Canada’s first and only end-to-end digital mortgage”.
Canadian banking tech vendor Smartsolution has gained a new taker for its Universa core banking suite, DirectCash Bank (DCBank).
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) have signed a new co-operation agreement to help fintech firms. The deal will enable fintech businesses in both countries to seek support from the financial regulators in each other’s market. It will also help reduce regulatory uncertainty and time to market for firms. Christopher […]
Mogo, a Canada-based fintech firm, has launched what it describes as the country’s first prepaid digital spending account managed through a mobile app, reports Banking Technology‘s sister publication Paybefore. The debut of the Mogo Spending Account and the Mogo Platinum Prepaid Visa comes amid robust growth in prepaid transactions in Canada. The full-service GPR card […]
Mogo, a Canada-based fintech firm, has launched what it describes as the country’s first prepaid digital spending account managed through a mobile app. The debut of the Mogo Spending Account and the Mogo Platinum Prepaid Visa comes amid robust growth in prepaid transactions in Canada.
Reloadable prepaid cards are a hit with Canadian consumers, with 95% of them saying they are satisfied with the products in 2016, reports Banking Technology‘s sister publication Paybefore. The figure represents an increase of 22 percentage points from 2015, and stands as the highest satisfaction rate for all payment tools, according to the second annual […]
Reloadable prepaid cards are a hit with Canadian consumers, with 95 percent of them saying they are satisfied with the products in 2016. That represents an increase of 22 percentage points from 2015, and stands as the highest satisfaction rate for all payment tools, according to the second annual survey from the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization.
Central 1 Credit Union, a software and services provider to 300 financial institutions in Canada, will overhaul its MemberDirect digital banking platform with Backbase’s tech. This is the first known deal for the Dutch vendor in Canada.
Canada-based St Stanislaus-St Casimir’s Polish Parishes Credit Union (Polcu) will move to a new core banking platform, Universa, supplied by local banking tech vendor Smartsolution.
Scotiabank has updated the market on how it has adopted the digital technology so far and how it plans to become a “digital leader” in its five key markets.
Canada-based Equitable Bank is implementing Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX regulatory reporting solution.
Canada’s Scotiabank has opened its new 70,000 square-feet “digital factory” in Toronto for fintech innovation. It is designed to be an innovation hub and incubator for the 23 million Scotiabank customers across the world, and is one among five centres in a network of such fintech-focused innovation centres. Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia will be […]
The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) wants to serve the fintech firms in the state better.
Equifax Canada has launched the first phase of a new multi-million dollar technology platform to provide financial data. The company organises, assimilates and analyses data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses across the globe. The first phase of its new platform is designed to provide predictive insights about consumer […]
Smooth Commerce and Visa have completed the first integration of Visa’s Developer Programme in Canada and brought to market “a first of its kind innovation” in the mobile commerce space.
A major payments battle has come to an end: Walmart Canada and Visa said they have reached a deal that enables consumers to use Visa-branded payment cards at retail locations in that country, reports Paybefore. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal, which stems from a disagreement in 2016 involving interchange. Walmart said […]
