Fintechs Canada sends pre-budget submission to federal government
Fintechs Canada is asking the government to follow through on its committment to implement “consumer-driven banking,” while continuing to support Payments Canada’s program to build and deploy the so-called real-time rail, which will be Canada’s first real-time payment system.
Join Fintechs Canada at Canada’s Open Banking Expo
This year will be a pivotal year for Open Banking in Canada. But many questions remain. Will the big five banks embrace a truly open environment, and how far can we progress after a slow start to implementation? Come join Fintechs Canada as members and other experts unpack these questions.
Fintechs Canada makes proposals for the future of competition policy
To modernize competition policy and enforcement in Canada, Fintechs Canada argues that policymakers need to make it easier for the Competition Bureau to prevent abuses of dominance, as well empower the Competition Bureau to better oversee the markets in which it’s supposed to be promoting competition. Last year, François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Innovation, Science, […]
Fintechs Canada statement on the 2023 budget
The 2023 federal budget delivered big progress in some ways, but we’re disappointed it didn’t deliver in others. Fintechs Canada looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the government to give Canadians better access to financial services that are affordable, safe, and sound.
Fintechs Canada welcomes EQ Bank as its newest member
Fintechs Canada is thrilled to announce that EQ Bank has joined the association. “EQ Bank has shown that you don’t have to be a fintech to get behind policy priorities that make Canadian consumers and businesses better off,” said Laurence Cooke, chairperson of the board of Fintechs Canada. “Canada is full of forward-thinking banks, and […]
Is the fintech policy agenda overrated or underrated? It depends on who’s asking
By Alex Vronces Overrated or underrated? It’s a question Tyler Cowen, one of my favourite public intellectuals, poses to guests on his podcast. The question turns simple conversation into meta-conversation. It moves you from discussing something to discussing the discussion of something. The question is almost magical, like a spell that makes you disappear […]
What the federal election means for the fintech agenda
By Alex Vronces In 2009, Paul Wells wrote that “Canadian politics will tend toward the least exciting possible outcome.” If change is exciting, then the lack thereof is boring. And the upshot of election 2021 is more of the same. The Liberals won a plurality of seats, meaning that the Liberals won another minority […]
OnlyFans: the intersection of power, porn, and payments
By Alex Vronces People don’t like to talk about payments legislation, but they do like to talk about power. Which is odd because payments legislation governs the movement of money, and control over the movement of money is power. Last Thursday, OnlyFans announced it would ban sexually explicit content on its website before changing […]
Reflections on Canada’s open banking report
By Alex Vronces Someone once told me — a fintech advocate — that fintech advocates are zealots. I’ve heard the word “zealot” before, but I’ve long had only a superficial understanding of its meaning. According to Richard A. Horsely, a now-retired professor of religious studies, “the Zealots have been the glorious example of Jews […]
Is Canada’s financial sector the product of “deregulatory capture”?
By Alex Vronces While the big five banks famously control less than half of the market in the United States, they famously control about 90 per cent of the market in Canada. Excessive market concentration isn’t necessarily bad, but it isn’t necessarily good, either. Excessive market concentration is bad when it does economic harm. […]