Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: FinTech and Alternative Finance
Canada Wins Backing For DSRB Headquarters
May 1, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Regulation And Policy
Multilateral Defence Financing Platform For Supply Chains
On Apr 29, 2026, Canada confirmed progress on the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank after multilateral negotiations in Montréal concluded on the proposed charter. Participating countries unanimously support Canada as host country for the future headquarters once the institution is ratified.
The initiative isn't a bank yet but it's making progress. Ratification, capital commitments, governance design, and member alignment is still ahead. But the structure already points to something bigger. It brings sovereign credit, bank balance sheets, defence procurement, SME finance, and private capital into one coordinated financing layer.
How The Defence Bank Model Works
The DSRB aims to deliver long term, low cost financing for defence, security, and resilience projects across supply chains. Finance Canada says the focus includes small and medium sized enterprises and member governments that face real financing gaps. The model itself relies on targeted guarantees and risk assessments to reduce investment risk in defence and dual use sectors.
That changes how capital flows. Instead of direct public spending alone, the DBSR bank lowers financing risk. Member countries provide credibility. Commercial banks and capital markets can then lend or invest with stronger protection than they would normally have on their own.
Canada’s upside goes beyond hosting. It pulls the country into how this system actually runs, from treasury and legal structuring through to risk modelling, credit guarantees, and the financing that supports procurement and supply chains. Earlier provincial bids for the DSRB platform showed that the real competition was never just location. It was influence over how a new allied financing system gets built.
Where Fintech Fits And Where Banks Lead
At launch, it runs through banks. They hold the balance sheets, structure the deals, and take the risk. That’s where capital moves. Fintechs shows up behind the curtain. Lenders need to see who they are financing, what risk looks like in real time, and where money should go. That creates room for infrastructure that handles verification, risk signals, payments, and supply chain visibility.
See: How Competition Powers Canada’s Economic Growth
Execution is the real test and Canada's Achilles heel. A headquarters doesn't automatically build capacity. Canada has to connect this bank to procurement, to real companies, and to lenders that will actually deploy capital. SMEs need a clear way in. Banks need line of sight into who they can back. If that clicks, the DSRB does more than fund projects. It turns defence demand into investable flow and pulls private capital into the system. If it does not, it stays concentrated with governments and large contractors.
Talking Point
The real question is not whether Canada hosts the DSRB. It is whether Canadian banks, fintechs, and policymakers turn it into a working capital channel for domestic firms or leave it concentrated with global institutions and large contractors.
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, artificial intelligence, 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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Santander Scales Ebury To Control SME Cross Border Payments
May 1, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Payments And Market Infrastructure
£550M Funding Deepens Bank-led Infrastructure For Global Trade Flows
On Apr 30 2026, Santander confirmed Ebury secured about £550M in funding led by Centerbridge Partners, with Santander, Vitruvian Partners, and 83North reinvesting. Santander will retain a 55% stake and positions Ebury as its core SME cross-border payments platform.
Ebury was founded in 2009 in London and focuses on cross border payments, foreign exchange, and trade finance for small and mid sized businesses. According to Santander, the platform serves more than 27,000 businesses, operates in over 160 countries, supports 140 currencies, and is active across more than 30 regulated markets. The company has delivered more than 30% annual revenue growth since 2020, reflecting sustained demand for SME-focused global payment infrastructure.
The model is built around consolidation of fragmented workflows. Businesses use Ebury to move funds, manage FX exposure, and access working capital in one system instead of relying on multiple banks and intermediaries. That reduces settlement friction, improves pricing transparency, and shortens execution time across cross border transactions.
This competitive positioning targets a structural gap. Large banks tend to focus on multinational corporates, while many fintechs focus on consumers or small merchants. Ebury sits in the middle, serving companies that operate internationally but lack access to sophisticated treasury and FX tools. By combining payments and FX, it captures both transaction volume and margin, which are often separated in traditional models.
See: UK Private Banks Commit £11 Billion To SME Export Lending
The funding supports further expansion and investment in automation and AI across payment processing and compliance workflows. Santander places Ebury within its Payments Solutions division, which targets more than 15% annual revenue growth through 2028, showing that cross border SME payments are being treated as a core growth segment rather than an adjacent business line.
Worth noting that Santander recently received approval to operate in Canada through a Canadian banking licence. Combining that regulatory presence with Ebury’s platform creates a path to serve Canadian SMEs engaged in global trade, particularly those that require faster payments, integrated FX, and access to international liquidity.
For Canadian fintechs and financial institutions, this news raises the competitive bar. Cross border payments are becoming integrated infrastructure platforms rather than standalone services. Competing requires deeper integration into business workflows, specialization in trade corridors, or partnerships that extend global reach.
Talking Point
If banks control fintech platforms like Ebury, cross border payments stop being a service and become infrastructure. The open question is whether independent fintechs can compete at global scale or whether access to capital, licensing, and distribution will concentrate that control inside bank backed networks.
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, artificial intelligence, 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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Broadridge Adds CQG To Push Deeper Into Trading Workflows
May 1, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure
CQG Execution Tools, Multi-Asset Connectivity And Workflow Ownership
On May 1, 2026, Broadridge completed its acquisition of CQG, adding futures and options execution management, algorithmic trading, analytics, and market connectivity to its capital markets platform.
CQG brings tools used by futures brokers, institutional investors, retail brokers, proprietary trading firms, and hedge funds to route, analyze, and execute trades. That gives Broadridge more capabilities in the daily work of firms that trade futures, options, foreign exchange, and digital assets.
Broadridge says its technology and operations platforms support average daily trading of more than $15T in tokenized and traditional securities globally. Adding CQG brings more trading activity into that infrastructure base. This type of scale gives the deal weight.
The deal also connects to Broadridge’s recent expansion into Canadian digital asset wealth infrastructure. It's not just about digital assets though. It's workflow ownership across the investment stack, from trading and analytics to custody, asset servicing, and portfolio infrastructure.
Talking Point
Broadridge is building around where financial firms spend time and money every day. Trading, connectivity, analytics, asset servicing, and digital assets are becoming harder to buy as separate pieces. That creates competition for fintech platforms selling solutions or brokers relying on thin integrations across multiple vendors.
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, artificial intelligence, 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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MIT AI Risk Repository For Fintech Governance
Apr 29, 2026 | NCFA Resource | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Risk Compliance And Regtech
AI Risk Taxonomy For Audits And Controls
The MIT AI Risk Repository is an open database created by researchers at MIT to bring structure to AI risk. It compiles more than 1,700 documented risks from 74 existing frameworks and studies into a single system. The aim is practical. AI risk guidance exists, but it is scattered and inconsistent across sources. This repository organizes it into a shared taxonomy, with links that show how risks connect and compound across systems.
See: Age Checks Become Digital Compliance Infrastructure
In practice, this gives teams a consistent way to map risk across AI systems.
- A lending team can trace where bias or model drift may affect credit decisions
- A fraud team can test how detection gaps might cascade into losses
- Compliance teams can align internal reviews to a shared structure instead of stitching together multiple frameworks
- It brings product, engineering, and risk teams onto the same page as firms scale AI into production and face tighter audit expectations, similar to how financial institutions approach model risk management in production environments
Who Gets Value
Teams already running AI in production will get the most from this. If you’re operating models in lending, fraud, onboarding, or customer support, it gives you a structured way to think about risk across systems. Larger fintechs and financial institutions dealing with audit and regulatory pressure will find it useful quickly. Early stage teams without deployed models will likely find it heavy and not immediately relevant.
Strengths And Limits
The strength here is structure. It turns fragmented AI risk concepts into something teams can actually use, and the causal links add depth that most frameworks miss. At the same time, it does not rank risks by likelihood or impact, and it does not translate directly into controls or regulatory compliance. Some classifications reflect interpretation across sources, and emerging risks may not be fully captured. Teams still need to apply judgment and build their own control layer on top.
Key Resources
Repository Homepage (AI risk overview and navigation)
Full Risk Database (AI risk dataset for audits)
Causal Taxonomy (AI risk relationships mapping)
Domain Taxonomy (AI risk classification framework)
Research Paper (AI risk methodology and design)
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, artificial intelligence, 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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Canada’s Economic Update Tightens Fintech Operating Model
Apr 28, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Risk Compliance And Regtech, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Open Banking Open Finance And Data Sharing, Payments And Market Infrastructure, Capital Markets And Funding
Canada Links Competition With Tighter Controls Across Fraud, Payments, and Financial Access
On Apr 28, 2026, the Government of Canada released its Spring Economic Update key measures. For fintech and financial institutions, a deeper and more integrated operating model is now taking form across fraud, payments, digital assets, banking fees, data access, and capital formation. Canada wants more competition in financial services, but not at the cost of weak controls. The update points to a more disciplined market where firms can win through lower costs, faster rails, better data access, and stronger fraud prevention (at least that's the strategic read).
François Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue, Government of Canada:
“From geopolitical shifts to supply chain disruptions to rapid technological breakthroughs, including in artificial intelligence, the world is changing quickly and Canada must adapt to thrive.”
Fraud To The Center of Financial Policy
The update treats fraud as a structural weakness in the financial system, not just a policing problem. Canada will establish the Financial Crimes Agency as a dedicated federal body for serious and complex financial crime, with police powers, civilian leadership, specialized personnel, and an asset recovery mandate.
The funding is material. Ottawa proposes $352.7 million over five years and $82.1 million ongoing for the agency, plus $46.2 million over five years for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and $19.6 million over five years for the Department of Finance Canada.
See: AI Security Models Create A Patch Overload Crisis
For fintechs, banks, platforms, and payment firms, this raises the bar. Fraud controls now need to work across onboarding, funding, transactions, identity, communications, reporting, and recovery. A good product experience will not carry a weak risk model.
Crypto ATMs Face Federal Ban
The clearest digital asset measure is the proposed crypto ATM ban. Annex 2 goes further than a policy signal. It proposes amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act and regulations to make it a criminal offence to operate a cryptocurrency automated teller machine.
Crypto ATMs connect cash to crypto quickly with limited friction, and can move scam proceeds outside the banking system before recovery becomes realistic. CBC reported that Canada has nearly 4,000 crypto ATMs, the most per capita in the world, and that some smaller deposits require only a phone number when under $1,000.
It's a targeted intervention of digital assets at what the government feels is the weakest access point. Serious crypto firms, custodians, exchanges, and tokenized finance builders should take note. Regulatory pressure will always look to where where money enters, exits, and escapes oversight.
MSBs Tighter Registration And Oversight
The update recognizes that money services businesses support remittances, currency exchange, digital payments, competition, and inclusion. It also says criminals increasingly abuse MSBs for money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, and fraud.
FINTRAC revoked the registration of 84 MSBs in March 2026 alone. Ottawa now proposes new Ministerial Directive powers, expanded authority for FINTRAC to refuse or revoke MSB registration, measures to prevent non compliant MSBs from re registering, more criminal record checks, action on shelf MSBs, and better visibility into what services each MSB actually provides.
See: BoC RPAA Annual Reporting Reminder For PSPs
This resets the perimeter. MSBs are now seen as critical risk gateways that can no longer just sit at the edge of the system as light infrastructure. This will help strong operators over time because weak competitors will find it harder to hide behind registration status alone.
Banking Fees Get Capped And Challenged
The update links competition policy directly to household financial costs. New NSF fee rules cap charges at $10, down from $45 to $50, with expected consumer savings of more than $600 million annually. Ottawa also intends to consult on prohibiting investment account transfer fees at federally regulated financial institutions. Those fees currently cost Canadians an average of $150 per transfer.
Fee friction has long protected incumbent economics. Lower caps and easier switching reward firms that use better data, real time balance checks, clearer pricing, and lower operating costs. Fintechs should treat this as a product opening opportunity.
Open Banking And Payments Rules Align
The update keeps consumer driven banking as part of Canada's competition agenda. It says amendments to complete the Consumer Driven Banking Act have passed, giving consumers greater control over their finances.
Annex 2 also points to related amendments involving the Retail Payment Activities Act, the Payment Clearing and Settlement Act, the Consumer Driven Banking Act, and the Stablecoin Act as part of Bank of Canada cost recovery consolidation.
See: Bank Of Canada Signals Open Banking Timing Risk
Read this as infrastructure alignment. Canada is preparing the back office of regulation for a more digital financial system.
Retail Investment Access Expands Through Public Markets
The Canada Strong Fund creates another fintech touchpoint. Ottawa describes it as a national investment initiative focused mainly on equity investments in strategic Canadian projects and companies. The government also intends to offer Canadians a widely accessible retail investment product tied to the fund.
Canada wants citizens to participate directly in national growth assets while protecting initial invested capital. If Canadians can invest in strategic projects through a national vehicle, how directly competitive will it be and what role will regulated online investment platforms, exempt market dealers, wealthtech firms, and investor education tools play?
Controls Tighten Across Financial System
Canada is finally becoming more competitive, albeit with a much tighter control layer. Fraud enforcement gets funding and focus. Crypto ATMs face prohibition. MSBs face deeper scrutiny. Banking fees face compression. Open banking remains active. Payments, stablecoins, and data access move into more coordinated oversight. Retail capital access gets a new public investment model.
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, artificial intelligence, 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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FIS Launches Lyriq Platform For Bank Issued Digital Money
Apr 29, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization
FIS Launches Lyriq Platform For Bank Issued Digital Money
On Apr 29, 2026, FIS launched Lyriq, a platform that allows banks to issue and manage tokenized deposits and digital money while keeping funds on balance sheet.
Lyriq connects with core banking systems and supports continuous settlement. Transactions are designed to either complete fully or fail, which reduces reconciliation work and gives banks clearer control over how payments move across systems. The platform enters limited availability after seven financial institution proofs of concept and multiple CBDC program engagements, including one moving toward pre-production.
See: Adyen Expands Control Across Enterprise Money Flow
The design focuses on production use. Identity, access control, compliance, and audit functions are built into the platform, allowing banks to run digital money flows within existing regulatory and operational frameworks rather than layering controls afterward.
Jim Johnson, Co-President of Banking Solutions, FIS:
“Lyriq is production-ready infrastructure that, combined with our deep expertise integrating bank technology, puts banks in control of money in motion. Lyriq is a platform proven with financial institutions - one that meets banks and regulators where they are.”
Lyriq is part of a broader set of tools FIS is building around digital assets. The company already supports stablecoin payments through its Money Movement Hub and loan tokenization through its Digital Liquidity Gateway. Together, these tools cover payments, deposits, and capital markets in one place.
For banks, the appeal is simple. They can offer faster and more flexible transactions while keeping deposits on their own balance sheets. Stablecoins already offer speed and programmability, but they sit outside the banking system. Lyriq gives banks a way to offer similar capabilities without sending funds elsewhere.
See: Tokenization Finds Scale In Collateral And Cash
The hard part has been getting these systems into real use. Many tokenization projects stay stuck in pilots because they don’t connect to core banking systems. Lyriq focuses on that gap by working with infrastructure that banks already use, which makes it easier to handle real transaction volume.
If banks can’t offer a similar experience, deposits and payment activity can move to platforms that already do. That’s the pressure pushing banks to act.
Talking Point
Which platforms become the operating layer for bank issued digital money, and which banks can move fast enough to keep deposits and payment flows inside their own systems?
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, artificial intelligence, 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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BoC RPAA Annual Reporting Reminder For PSPs
Apr 29, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Payments And Market Infrastructure, Risk Compliance And Regtech
Annual Reporting Deadline Enforcement For PSPs
On Apr 27, 2026, the Bank of Canada reminded PSPs under the Retail Payment Activities Act that annual reports were due by March 31, 2026. PSPs registered after March 30, 2026 are not required to submit an annual report for 2025.
PSPs that missed the deadline should submit their report as soon as possible or face potential enforcement action.
The reporting framework is detailed. PSPs must follow the Bank’s annual reporting policy, which requires annual reports by March 31 each year, and its retail payment metrics policy, which covers the value of end user funds held, EFT volume and value, end users served, and other PSPs served. This turns reporting into an operating discipline (to avoid a year end scramble).
The Bank’s reporting guide shows that PSPs must report across operational risk, incident management, end user funds safeguarding, significant changes, incidents, activity metrics, financial information, and record keeping.
The form also asks about cyber security controls, third party service providers, agents, mandataries, safeguarding accounts, shortfalls, and independent reviews.
See: Update on Retail Payments Supervision and PSP Registry
For operators, (1) data infrastructure must support audit ready reporting, (2) governance must match supervisory expectations, and (3) product design must account for regulatory visibility from day one.
For investors and partners, reporting compliance is a useful test of execution quality. Firms that can operate inside regulated environments with clean reporting, strong controls, and reliable evidence will have an advantage as oversight expands.
Information Session On Annual Reporting Requirements
The Bank’s information session walks PSPs through annual reporting requirements, including required data fields, operational risk disclosures, activity metrics, and submission through PSP Connect.
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, artificial intelligence, 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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