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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

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More Businesses Should Follow the Jeff Bezos ‘Country Club’ Rule

July 13, 2020

Inc | Don Reisinger | Jul 11, 2020 Why the Amazon founder's simple rule might inspire innovation--not recreation--in your company. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has plenty of rules for his company to follow, but arguably none of them may be as impactful on small business success as his "country club" rule. In his 2013 book The Everything Store, author Brad Stone recounted how Jeff Bezos would often say he didn't want Amazon to become "a country club" where people who want "to retire" land after they work hard in their careers. He'd reference Microsoft when talking about the "country club" mentality, Stone wrote, and believed Amazon should keep its fast-moving and constantly innovating culture. In an interview with CNBC earlier this year, former Amazon executive John Rossman referenced the time he heard Bezos make the same country club analogy and explained it as follows: "The point being that even if you're doing well in the marketplace, you always have to work hard and not hold back to ensure that you and your staff are creating a future that's every bit as bright as the one you may have inherited." Like it or not, your business needs to stay hungry and stay away from country clubs. Just ...
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Digital IDs Help Open Banking Reach Its Fullest Potential

July 12, 2020

PYMTS | July 10, 2020 Open banking comes in several flavors, yet its rise requires robust Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures, Zac Cohen, chief operating officer at identity verification firm Trulioo told Karen Webster in a recent interview. As financial institutions (FIs) work with FinTechs, they need to know that these tech-nimble startups are not only enabling access to customers’ account data but also in a manner that embraces KYC and AML. The end goal: to speed innovation toward new products and services while keeping fraudsters out. Regulation Vs. Market Forces The need for both innovation and security comes at a time when open banking is gaining a foothold in the United States due in part to the pandemic. It’s also growing across the pond in the European Union, albeit with some important distinctions. “In recent years, we’ve seen the heavily regulated version of open banking in the E.U.,” Cohen said. “It’s been a coordinated effort — regulatory-driven, highly standardized and thrust upon the banking community. In the U.S., it’s been an organic-but-inevitable exercise, driven primarily by innovation and consumer demand.” That’s due in part to the fact that America has a more fragmented banking and ...
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FFCON20 fintech cage match: Financial planning vs literacy

July 11, 2020

NCFA Canada | By Samuel He | July 11, 2020 Dealing with finances is time-consuming and difficult, especially when it involves contradictory goals, like paying off debt while investing for the future. Unfortunately, financial literacy is not emphasized in today’s educational curriculum. Reports show that only 16% of Millennials qualified as “financially literate,” and over 75% of Canadians stated that they were not confident that they will ever achieve their financial goals. Several companies have taken initiatives to offer assistance in this field. One company is Finally, a free online financial planning stimulator will provide guidance to users about their financial goals. Another is NuMoola, a family-focused consumer banking app that helps children develop good money habits using real money and gamified education. Finally offers a DIY Financial Planning Simulator that helps users customize a tailor-made plan to best fit their needs. The simulator uses multiple financial algorithms and machine learning to make the process straightforward and efficient, creating a plan for the user in as little as 20 minutes. A basic financial plan can be created for free, with the user having the option to subscribe for additional value-added services. Some of these services include automated money movement, access ...
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Montreal’s Flinks raises $16 million

July 11, 2020

Montreal in Technology | Steve La Barbera | Jul 6, 2020 Perhaps Montreal’s best known fintech, Flinks has today announced another $16 million flowing into its coffers. That includes just over $5 million in debt, and and $11 million series A round led by National Bank’s corporate venture capital arm, NAventures, which was also the source of the loan. The round also included participation from Intact Ventures, Luge Capital and Panache Ventures. “The digitization of financial services is more than just a trend. It’s a profound reshaping of the industry, driven by rapidly changing consumer needs in a global context. Flinks is uniquely positioned to help businesses accelerate their digital transformation,” said Flinks co-founder and CEO, Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf. “This investment from our strategic partners allows us to jumpstart the next phase of our mission: consolidating our position in our home market and building new innovative data products that will allow us to tackle global demand.” The funding will be used to help Flinks bring its services to new verticals, such as wealth management, and continue its geographic expansion to establish itself as a market leader in those new geos. By developing and leveraging a powerful, secure data exchange network, Flinks ...
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Refusal to embrace open banking puts Canada behind yet another curve

July 10, 2020

Financial Post | Kevin Carmichael | July 10, 2020 Adam Felesky, chief executive of Portag3 Ventures LP, the venture-capital arm of Power Corp. of Canada, was primed to put his home country on the leading edge of finance at the end of last year. “We’re on a mission to build global champions from a Canadian base,” Felesky told the TechCrunch website in early December when Portag3 announced it had raised $427 million for a new fund aimed at digital finance startups. The “majority” of that money remains unallocated, Felesky told me this week, but that could soon change. The social distancing demanded by COVID-19 has sped up the shift to a digital economy, a boon for outfits such as Toronto-based Portag3, which specializes in identifying startups that have plans to disrupt finance. The pandemic caused a terrible recession, but anyone focused on digital technology barely noticed. “We’ve been playing offence,” Felesky said during a Zoom interview organized by the National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association. “We’re excited about the environment right now. There are lots of opportunities.” Without access to data, digital upstarts have little chance of stealing market share from legacy institutions, even if they offer a better service Unfortunately ...
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Opportunity to connect and discuss how student talent can help your business

July 10, 2020

TFI | Sara Anderson | July 10, 2020 Are you interested in providing students with work opportunities that can benefit them, and your business, during Canada’s economic recovery? If you’re in HR, talent management, or responsible for recruitment within your organization, this is a great initiative and opportunity to help you achieve your goals. Toronto Finance International has partnered with The Conference Board of Canada (CBoC) and Business + the Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) to improve and expand student work-integrated learning (WIL) in Canada. Our aim is to assess and support student recruitment, training, and future talent needs during our country’s economic recovery from COVID-19. Our partners are developing a user-friendly resource hub to support employers in adding or expanding student talent within their organizations, and we need your input. We’re facilitating a series of virtual consultations and invite you to join us for a candid discussion about work-integrated learning. You’ll connect with a pan-Canadian network of senior leaders focused on developing WIL opportunities and tools that will benefit businesses across the country. You’ll help shape a toolbox for Canadian businesses and gain advanced access to BHER’s online toolkit of tips, tricks and resources on using WIL to address your ...
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FFCON20 DIGITAL Attendees to Receive Exclusive Digital Icon and Early Access to Liquid Avatar

July 8, 2020

NCFA and FFCON20 | Release | July 8, 2020 TORONTO — July 8, 2020 — The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA), Toronto Finance International (TFI), and partners are pleased to announce that together with their sponsor, KABN Systems North America Inc. (“KABN”), attendees of FFCON20 DIGITAL, taking place from July 9 through August 27 inclusive, will receive an exclusive Liquid Avatar FFCON 20 iconic digital pin to celebrate their attendance at the event. The FFCON20 digital pin is the first event pin offered by Liquid Avatar (www.liquidavatar.com) in support of its new app to power users to verify, manage and monetize their digital identity. Liquid Avatar, a KABN product offering, provides users with the ability to verify, manage and control their digital identity through an easy to use app or web page. Using high quality icons, users can create their digital identity and verify themselves using KABN’s bank grade validation process and biometrics, supported by Blockchain technologies. “We’re honored to be able to present our first Liquid Avatar event pin at FFCON 20 DIGITAL,” said Mr. Ben Kessler, CEO – KABN. “Liquid Avatar gives users control over the use of their digital identity and data providing them with the ...
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FFCON20 DIGITAL: RISE Speakers Board –> Join Us for a Fintech Summer!

July 7, 2020

Attend One or All 8 Weekly FFCON20 Sessions! Links:  Program | Speakers | Experience | Vote in Fintech Draft Attend Week 1:  Thursday, July 9 from 1:45PM - 4:45PM EDT Scaling Fintech Funding, Innovation and Competition Attend this Session for $25! (Expires July 7 midnight) The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org ...
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New regime needed to take on tech giants

July 7, 2020

Competition Markets Authority | Release | Jul 1, 2020 The CMA is calling on the government to introduce a new pro-competition regulatory regime to tackle Google and Facebook’s market power. The dynamic nature of digital advertising markets and the types of concerns identified by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in its market study are such that existing laws are not suitable for effective regulation. It is therefore recommending a new pro-competition regulatory regime to govern the behaviour of major platforms funded by digital advertising, like Google and Facebook. This recommendation to government is the result of a year-long examination of the markets. The CMA used its statutory information gathering powers to lift the lid on how advertising revenue drives the business model of major platforms. The CMA’s concerns UK expenditure on digital advertising was around £14bn in 2019, equivalent to about £500 per household. About 80% of this is earned by just 2 companies: Google and Facebook. Google enjoys a more than 90% share of the £7.3 billion search advertising market in the UK, while Facebook has a share of over 50% of the £5.5 billion display advertising market. Google’s revenue per search has more than doubled since 2011, ...
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Check out the latest books by a few of our featured FFCON speakers!

July 6, 2020

NCFA | Team FFCON20 | July 6, 2020 We have great thought leaders and authors that will be speaking at FFCON20 (also some prizes!) Check these out and stay at the forefront of digital change in financial services: Banking in today’s day and age has evolved rapidly, especially in the recent decade. With the rise in digital and open banking, new opportunities are sprouting up and disrupting the traditional ways of banking. Prominent banks such as JPMorgan Chase (USA) and ING (Europe) are fully aware of this and have adopted radical new approaches to best adapt and survive the changing environment. Voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand, Chris Skinner provides detailed interviews with 5 banks in Doing Digital and shares his commentary on the secrets to thrive in the new era of finance and technology. Get DOING DIGITAL book now See Chris Skinner speak at FFCON20 Week 3:  July 23 Sustainable Finance:  Purpose Driven Finance The financial services industry has been evolving at unprecedented speeds with increasing competition from both within and outside the industry, notably from entrepreneurial FinTech start-ups and non-financial technology-based companies. Some of these entrants are looking to replace the ...
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