Opening Up Financial Services
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Digital, NEO, Open Banking, Open Finance
Canadien blooming. The fertile “Valley” for finance innovation FLOW: OB, CAN Trends, Beyond OB: BaaS + Embedded Finance, tunl
Finconecta | Betty DeVita | Dec 3, 2021
The Open Banking model marks a global evolution (although some experts talk about a “revolution”) in the financial market. Motivated by the increased
need to respond to customer demands, compete with new financial players and meet regulation requirements, banks are adopting API-based business models. Open Banking emerges in the financial industry as a new model of collaboration with third-party providers. By working in partnership with fintech banks, they are able to expand customer reach, accelerate the adoption of new technologies, and create new revenue streams. The underlying mindset is the realization that complex problems that demand immediate resolution, need a strategy that taps into “the wisdom of the many”, rather than siloed proprietary solutions.
While, in some countries like the US and China, Open Banking is spreading only by market forces, in other geographies the regulatory agenda is playing a central role. In Europe, some Asian and Latin American regulators, often driven by financial inclusion mandates, are promoting the shift to open ecosystems by launching directives like the well-known PSD2 in Europe and the Open Banking Standard in the UK.
See:
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Privacy Implications of an Open Banking System in Canada
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Canada’s Library of Parliament Report: A Comparison of Open Banking Recommendations
Taking into account these regulatory successful practices, the government of Canada appointed an Advisory Committee (AC) in 2018 for the design and implementation of the Open Banking framework. As a first phase, the AC started with consultations with stakeholders across Canada. Based on its findings, in spring 2020 the committee started the second phase, providing advice on potential solutions and standards focusing on data.
Bringing together the government and the private industry, Canada is aiming to embrace a hybrid, made-in-Canada strategy. The scope is ambitious as all federally regulated banks will be required to participate while others regulated banks could join on a voluntary basis. Despite some delays due to the pandemic, the AC plans to have the Open Banking regime operational by January 2023.
Canada's Open Banking Phased Implementation Plan
Live Date January 2023
While the regulation is cautiously but steadily progressing in Canada, leading banks are already partnering with FinTechs using APIs to deliver new digital products. Even later adopters are exploring new technologies as COVID-19 forced them to respond, adapt and innovate. As far as fintechs are concerned, they have gained attention by proving to be the solution to navigate the crisis.
According to Accenture, Fintech Report 2020, the Canadian FinTech industry is booming with 700 FinTechs and hundreds of nascent startups. Registering record levels of investment, venture capitalists remain optimistic despite COVID-19 uncertainty. The potential of the Canadian ecosystem is massive, especially when
considering the proactive approach taken by an efficient public sector. That explains the surge of many Canadian unicorns, like Clearco, a lending platform, Coveo an AI platform and Wealthsimple, an online investment manager, to name a few.
See: Betakit podcast with Senator Deacon on Open Banking and Competition
Going beyond the Open Banking model, the Canadian financial sector is also benefiting by innovative collaborative structures like Banking-as-a-Service and Embedded Finance. As an example we have Hopper, the travel mobile-only app that uses predictive analytics to make travel recommendations. This Canadian unicorn, recently awarded as the Best Travel App, provides information about best deals on flight and hotels, sends push notifications to their users when best prices are available, suggests new destinations based on your search and most importantly allows the payment for all travel services through one single interface.
Open Banking can and should be a journey towards digital innovation. As FinConecta’s Chief Business Officer Betty deVita remarks: “Infrastructure is sexy” (and now it is trendy!) . There has never been a better time for enabling new business models. In March 2021 Amazon Web Services (AWS) and FinConecta launched Open Finance, a leading-edge platform based on FinConecta’s technology, that expands the boundaries of Open Banking to the next level”, deVita adds. “And now we landed in Canada, as the engine behind tunl., an API platform that brings together Financial Institutions and Fintechs” (To learn more about Ficanex and FinConecta’s joint launch of tunl 2.0) Banking-as-Service goes beyond the data sharing contemplated in Open Banking, including products that are embedded into the financial institution's own core, such as infrastructure, data and banking licenses on a white-labeled basis.
The future is open and Canada is ramping up. We anticipate dramatic changes in 2021 pushed by the FinTech sector growth and the regulatory framework. If financial institutions were contemplating digital transformation as a “nice to have”, now is a must-have shift.
See: Reflections on Canada’s open banking report
Bottom line is, great things are to come in Canada. A flurry of fintech activity is gaining traction, bolstering the ecosystem.This API economy opens new horizons for all types of institutions, by enabling collaboration and the co-creation of new solutions leveraging what others have available, in a robust, interconnected and integrated roadmap.
As the old adage says: “If it’s not here, where; if it's not me, who; if it’s not now, when.”
Authored by:
Betty DeVita, CBO, FinConecta
Betty is a global digital transformation executive with expertise in consumer financial services/payments. Her focus is on early-stage and emerging companies driving value creation, partnerships and the path to global scaling. She most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer of Digital Payments & Labs at MasterCard. She also served as President at MasterCard Canada. Prior to that she was with Citi in Latam, the US and Asia in their consumer franchise and left Citi as Chair/CEO for Citibank Canada Inc.Betty sits on the board of Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE: TAP), where she sits on the audit committee. She holds a Bachelor of Science from St John’s University, a CEO Certificate from the WhartonKMA in South Korea and is a certified director from the Institute of Corporate Directors, University of Toronto
This article is featured in NCFA's digital magazine, Fintech Confidential (Issue 4 Oct 2021). Click to read the latest thought leadership, insights and trends about Fintech in Canada:
Checkout NCFA's digital magazine, Fintech Confidential (Issue 4) --> here
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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Tink Survey Report 2021: Open banking spending, investments and use cases
Tink | Dec 1, 2021
We surveyed 308 financial executives in Europe to get a better understanding of how their open banking budgets are shaping up in 2021, and what use cases they are most likely to invest in.
In this report, we explore how investments are shaping up and what use cases executives have in sight. Here is the ‘too long; didn’t read’ version, if you’re just curious to know some of the top findings on the investments front:
See: Open banking continues to evolve — what’s next?
- Across all segments of finance, the mean spending on open banking objectives in 2020 was €32 million.
- The spending was significantly higher for retail banks and wealth management firms – at a mean of €84 million and €79 million, respectively.
- The pandemic played havoc with budgets in 2020, and executives spent less than they’d initially budgeted. But this year, investor confidence is back up and open banking is high on the agenda.
- Although one third (30%) of executives say budgets declined in 2021, the largest chunk (46%) indicate that their budgets have grown year-on-year.
- As to where the money might be going, financial executives have set their eyes on a broad set of open banking use cases:
- Payment initiation services comes out on top as the most important use case across all segments.
- Opportunities to improve the customer experience follow, with use cases related to financial management and onboarding.
- Risk-related use cases also rank high – especially for retail banks, credit institutions and mortgage providers who consider these ‘extremely important’.
- Differentiators and add-ons (such as subscription management, loyalty programmes, targeted advertising) rank lower on the list – although they are still important for a majority of respondents.
See: Financial data unbound: The value of open data for individuals and institutions
We also explore how open banking is tearing down barriers and allowing new players to enter the market – meaning financial institutions should move fast to keep a competitive edge. The full report (which you can download as a PDF) dives a bit deeper in the results, analysing the industry context and our own take on what might explain the results. It also includes additional interviews with three industry thought leaders, and some practical tips for staying ahead in this fast-moving space.
Continue to the full article --> here
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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State of Challenger Banking in Canada
FGS | Surinderjit Kaur Bhatti | Nov 25, 2021
Challenger Banks are the players that offer digital-only alternatives to traditional financial institutions’ banking products and services. As per FGS database, there are 40 such players in Canada, and we categorize them into the following 4 categories based on the status of their banking license. Top players under each category include:
- Beta (using parent FI’s banking licence) - EQ Bank, Simplli, Tangerine, Brightside by ATB
- New (secured a new banking licence) - PC Financial, Motusbank, Canadian Tire Bank, Rogers Bank
- Neo (don’t have their own banking licence but have a partner who does) - Neo Financial, Koho, STACK, Mogo
- Non (don’t have a traditional banking license but meet the conditions to offer financial products in non-traditional ways, like getting a e-money license) - Brim
Over the years, these players have seen tremendous growth in their adoption through launch of innovative value propositions for Canadian consumers. Following are some of the recent trends seen in space:
SME Challenger Banks finally enter the picture
While challenger bank for small and medium businesses was a white space for a very long time in Canada, this year we have seen four players enter the space - Carry, Float, Benji, Jeeves. While most of these solutions are in beta stage right now, they have amazing value propositions for Canadian SMEs like no fee, no personal guarantee corporate cards, unlimited one-time use virtual cards, one-click accounting sync and spend management.
See: KABN North America and Liquid Avatar Unveils New Challenger Banking Program for Verified Self Sovereign Identity Users
While these are the solutions for small businesses, Moves is a player that has recently launched Moves Spending Account, a banking solution for gig workers. Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have also partnered with Payfare to offer instant payments to their gig workers through a prepaid card. Apart from these, there are expected launches of SME banking solutions in Canada from Shopify (Shopify Balance) and Quickbooks (Quickbooks Cash), which are live south of the border.
Kids/Teen banking gaining traction in Canada
In the past couple of years, we have seen a new niche of challenger banks appear on the Canadian landscape - Challenger Bank for Kids/Teens. Treasure, Walo and Wingocard are some of the players in this space. RBC Ventures has also launched a kid banking app called Mydoh. These solutions not only enable parents to digitally give money to their children, they also help them to track children's spending, set tasks that need to be completed for earning allowance, and help kids learn about savings. While most of these apps are meant for kids and teens for earning allowance from their parents, we have seen a new player, SideKick, which is meant for international students in Canada. SideKick helps international students to receive money from their family in different currencies and enables spending in Canada through a prepaid card.
Challenger Banks are enabling innovation in the rewards and PFM space
Challengers are innovating the rewards space which is no longer limited to the traditional loyalty programs. The new players are offering a range of reward options from cashbacks that are immediately accessible for spending to personalized discounts at a curated list of retailers. Mogo has given the rewards a completely different twist by offering a cashback in bitcoins. For every purchase through a Mogo account, you earn 1-2% bitcoin cashback which is accessible through Mogo’s bitcoin account (Mogo also has a bitcoin investing product). STACK has created a community called World Stream where STACK users can share their purchases and STACKHacks to earn best rewards and save money.
See: Fintech Card Space is Growing: Brim Financial, Float, Caary Capital, Jeeves, Neo Financial
PC Financial, on the other hand, is staying strong on its loyalty program game through its PC Optimum points program. The program has more than 18 million members and is in fact the layer behind most of the Loblaw offerings - PC Money, Credit Cards, PC Health and beyond.
Additionally, challenger banks are enabling Canadians to better manage their finances by offering tools like automated savings, spending limits, sub-accounts for saving goals, transaction round-up savings and spending insights. Some of the players also offer credit score monitoring and building solutions. These use-cases will further grow with the advent of Open Banking in Canada as users would then be able to link all their accounts to a single app and get a full view of their financial standing which will enable informed financial decisions.
Prepaid is enabling non-banks to enter challenger banking space
Non-banks are entering the financial space through the launch of ‘bank like’ solutions which are mainly enabled by a prepaid card. The categories of these non-bank players launching challenger banking solutions for their customers range from tech giants to e-commerce players to major retailers.
See: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada publishes BNPL pilot study
Prepaid enables these players to quickly enter the financial industry and start capturing the banking relationship of their customers with minimal regulatory requirements and skipping the need for getting a bank license. The non-bank players are thus able to not just offer an end-to-end experience to their customers but also capture their spending data which helps them to learn more about the consumer and further innovate to offer predictive services.
Authored by:
Surinderjit Kaur Bhatti, Co-CEO at FGS, is a FinTech expert with experience ranging from the venture capital world to leading an innovation lab of a financial institution to innovation consulting. At present, she is a leader at FinTech Growth Syndicate and helping Canadian Financial Institutions build their FinTech strategies through market intelligence services.
This article is featured in NCFA's digital magazine, Fintech Confidential (Issue 4 Oct 2021). Click to read the latest thought leadership, insights and trends about Fintech in Canada:
Checkout NCFA's digital magazine, Fintech Confidential (Issue 4) --> here
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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The Retail Payments Advisory Committee is gathering expertise on a preliminary approach to fees
Bank of Canada | Nov 9, 2021
The Retail Payments Advisory Committee (RPAC) will meet in November to discuss preliminary approaches to fees. Under the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA), the Bank is required to recoup costs incurred to carry out its mandate of supervising payment service providers. Stakeholders are encouraged to read the discussion material and send us your feedback directly by email. A summary of what we heard will be published to the Bank’s website once our analysis is completed.
See: Canada’s Library of Parliament Report: A Comparison of Open Banking Recommendations
RPAC is a forum set up by the Bank to gather industry expertise about the retail payment services landscape. RPAC provides advice and expertise on specific topics as the Bank designs and operationalizes its Retail Payments Supervisory Framework. The Bank also solicits information from industry and stakeholders that are not members of RPAC.
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the RAC Approach to Fees (31 page PDF) discussion document --> here
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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Open banking continues to evolve — what’s next?
Sifted | Steph Bailey | Nov 3, 2021
Opening Up Financial Services
Investors are still betting big on open banking: in the past three months, TrueLayer announced a $130m funding round led by Tiger Global, Visa bought rival Tink for $2bn, Yapily announced its $51m Series B raise and Mastercard doubled down by acquiring Aiia — a Danish startup that will allow Mastercard to do credit scoring.
So why are investors flashing the cash when open banking is still in its nascency? Back in April, Yapily founder Stefano Vaccino told Sifted that VCs are less concerned with monetisation and more with the market’s raw opportunity.
See: Digital Banking / Analytics / Infrastructure companies in Canada
“Investors aren’t looking at revenue multipliers, but the size of the market… This is a space that for the next 10 to 15 years will continue to grow, and there’s an opportunity to build a company that is $100bn,” Vaccino said.
One of the opportunities in open banking is the payments market, where fintechs are using the vast network of bank connectivity to fuel a new era of account to account (A2A) transactions. That’s allowing consumers to pay directly into merchants’ bank accounts rather than using a card.
Early open banking players like Tink, Plaid, Bankin’ and TrueLayer — who all began by offering data connectivity — have now started branching into the payments space. They’ve recently been joined by new players including Vyne, BOPP, Trilo and Banked.
“There’s an amazing thing in fintech generally called coopetition, where there’s an acceptance that you can’t be good at everything,” he says. “Most fintechs and people in the industry now consider the competition as part of what is needed to deliver the solutions you need.”
See: Privacy Implications of an Open Banking System in Canada
A key piece of European payments legislation called PSD2 came into effect in 2018 and boosted the open banking sector by forcing UK banks to open up their data (albeit to varying quality levels). McDougall now says similar legislation is needed in other countries.
“What we’re going to need over the years ahead is the availability of equivalent regulatory frameworks in these other jurisdictions,” he says. “So that European open banking works seamlessly with North American open banking etc.”
The UK is now nearing four million open banking customers, which is behind predictions, but with the right regulation and products, 40m people could have accessed open banking services by 2025. However, surveys suggest some customers still have concerns over protecting their data.
But Greenwood says there are 58 countries currently rolling out their own version of open banking. While the UK was among the first to adopt it, he says other countries can learn from it.
Continue to the full article --> here
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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US consumers agree trust in protecting assets is essential before they’ll share their bank credentials
eMarketer | Matthew Gaughan | Nov 4, 2021
A June 2021 survey from Klarna and Nepa found that 52% of US adults trusted banks, while just 17% trusted neobanks. The fragmentation of open banking in the US has led to slow adoption of the technology by consumers—55% of US adults have never even heard of the service.
See: Paying for coffee with crypto? Get ready, the future of payments is already here
According to a PYMNTS.com survey conducted in collaboration with MX, more than a quarter of US consumers surveyed said trust in their financial institution to protect their financial assets is the most important factor in sharing bank credentials with third parties.
- 16.0% said that trust in the third party they were connecting to was the most important.
- 14.4% picked the belief that the connections are secure as their top choice.
- 11.6% noted that transactions becoming much easier because the accounts are connected as their top factor.
Having said this, among survey respondents that connected third-party apps to their bank accounts, 29.9% were very or extremely interested, and 25.7% were somewhat interested in using an open-banking portal offered by their personal bank. The level of interest grew within certain groups—particularly younger generations or those already comfortable with sharing credentials.
See: Should the age of Nubank’s customer base worry incumbents?
- 47.1% and 37.2% of Millennials and Gen Z, respectively, were very or extremely interested.
- 59.8% of consumers that were very or extremely comfortable sharing credentials showed the same high level of interest for open banking as younger generations.
Continue to the full article --> here
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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Should the age of Nubank’s customer base worry incumbents?
eMarketer | Tom Auchterlonie | Nov 3, 2021
The news:
Nubank revealed that its customers skew younger than those at established banks, per findings included in its newly disclosed US initial public offering (IPO) filing.
The Brazilian neobank attributed its data to a mix of its own research and assistance from Oliver Wyman. The findings, dated September 30, 2021, show:
- 59% of Nubank’s customers were under 35 years old, versus just 30% for incumbents.
- The gap is also stark when measuring people under 45, with the demographic comprising 81% of Nubank’s customers versus 52% for incumbents.
- Nubank also predicts that a subset of its young customers—those ages 20 to 24—will experience a real-income boost of about 70% over the coming decade.
Note: The neobank disclosed its most detailed customer and performance statistics to date in anticipation of going public.
See:
Brazilian neobank Nubank Raises $400M Series G at $25B Valuation
Nubank Investment Underscores Tencent’s Quick Investing Pace
Banks Are Offering Five-Figure Raises and Time Off To Make Young Bankers Happier
Latest from BIS and a group of 7 central banks including Canada on retail CBDCs
Strong customer stats:
- Nubank’s overall user base reached 48.1 million as of September 30, 2021, up 62% year over year (YoY), when it was 29.7 million.
- Monthly active customers, defined as those who generated revenue within a 30-day window, stood at 35.3 million as of the same date, an 89% YoY increase from 18.6 million.
- Deposits rose by 98% YoY, for the period, going from $4.1 billion to $8.1 billion. The percentage growth has been decelerating over time while the dollar amount has increased further.
- Growth in small and medium-sized business (SMBs) users was up 189% YoY for the same period, surging from about 370,000 to nearly 1.1 million.
- More than half of Nubank’s active customers that have been with it for over a year are considered to have a primary banking relationship, which the company defines as when an active customer has at least 50% of their monthly post-tax income flowing in or out of their accounts.
- A track record of low customer-acquisition cost (CAC), with an average around 80% to 90% per year due to word of mouth or direct unpaid referrals. Nubank posted a $5.0 per customer CAC for the first nine months of 2021—and it believes, based on its research, that it has one of the world’s lowest CACs among consumer fintech companies.
Continue to the full article --> here
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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