Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Stories
Stronger Bank–NBFI Links Show Why Data Matters Most
Bank of Canada Research | Nov 14, 2025
Image: Perceived interconnections between banks and NBFIs (Bank of Canada Staff Report, November 2025)
Deeper market linkages call for smarter transparency
On November 13 2025, the Bank of Canada Staff published Analytical Note 2025-26 titled, "Perceived interconnections between Canadian banks and non-bank financial intermediaries under stress" (16 page PDF), that examines how stress spreads between banks and non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) such as investment and mortgage funds. While the research found that market-based linkages between banks and non-banks have grown much stronger over the past decade, it offers no specific policy steps.
See: Budget 2025 Accelerates Fintech, AI, and Capital Growth
For Canada’s fintech and regulatory communities, that leaves room to build smarter transparency and data-driven tools that improve resilience while encouraging innovation.
A System That Moves Together
The Bank used a market-based metric called the ratio of tail sensitivities to track how often banks and NBFIs experience stress at the same time. In simple terms, it measures how likely both sectors are to face sharp losses together when markets turn volatile.
Before the pandemic, that overlap was around 60%, meaning stress in one sector often stayed contained. During 2020 (Covid-19), the overlap jumped to almost 90%, showing that both banks and NBFIs were hit by the same shocks at once.
Post Covid-19, it has stayed above 70%. This signals that Canada’s financial system now behaves more like a single network where investor confidence, liquidity, and risk pricing can ripple quickly across different parts of the market.
What the Study Doesn't Measure
The analysis relies on market indicators such as price changes and co-movement ratios. These signals show how banks and non-banks react to market stress, but they don't track the underlying funding flows, repo exposure, or off balance sheet commitments that reveal how those stresses move in practice. The Bank acknowledges that data gaps make it hard to see how financial stress truly spreads between institutions.
See: BNPL Plans Are Starting to Affect Credit in Canada
The research measures perceived connections through statistical patterns rather than verified, real time data linkages. That distinction matters. Without deeper, connected data, it is harder to see where vulnerabilities are forming or how quickly they could spread. Closing that gap doesn't necessarily require new regulation but better tools and shared information that improve resilience while encouraging innovation.
Better Information, Better Decisions
Regulators already monitor funding and liquidity in near real time, but the Bank of Canada notes that current data still do not explain how financial stress moves between different parts of the system. The missing piece is insight into how one market’s strain can quickly affect another’s ability to function.
For example, if liquidity tightens in the mortgage or bond market, investment funds might sell assets to meet investor redemptions. Those sales can push down prices, reducing the value of collateral that banks use for their own lending and funding. Within hours, what starts as a localized funding issue can spread to other sectors that rely on those same assets. Economists have long modelled this type of stress transmission, but those models depend on historical or aggregated data. They show how shocks can travel but not how fast they move in real time.
See: Where the Gaps Are: Fintech Insights from FCA Data
RegTech innovation could help close this gap. Shared data platforms, digital reporting tools, and secure analytics could give both regulators and market participants a clearer view of where risks are forming. Instead of expediting new rules, the opportunity is better information that allows for faster, better, data-driven action. Fintechs can play a leading role by designing systems that make oversight smarter, not heavier, while strengthening confidence across the financial system.
Why It Matters Now
If Canada wants to maintain stability and support innovation, it needs visibility into where financial pressure builds. The Bank of Canada's findings show that perceived connections already move markets but without deeper real-time data access, those perceptions could harden into real stress events. The opportunity is to turn perception into understanding and make transparency Canada’s real advantage.
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
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
Inside the Feedback Loops Driving AI Failure
AI | Nov 13, 2025
How AI Harm Happens and Why Governance Keeps Missing It
In October 2025, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) released a report called, "The Mechanisms of AI Harm", that breaks down how artificial intelligence can cause harm through predictable pathways. The study found that most failures stem not from malicious use but from system design, biased data, and weak oversight.
See: AI Psychosis Threatens Trust in Innovation
CSET warns that as AI systems spread through banking, healthcare, and infrastructure, the harm becomes self-reinforcing. Each model learns from the last, compounding flaws over time. The problem is not bad actors but feedback loops that quietly scale risk. Governance is lagging behind by years, while the pace of model deployment grows monthly.
When Innovation Outruns Accountability
In Detroit, a police facial recognition system wrongly identified Robert Williams, leading to a false arrest that eroded public trust in the technology meant to improve safety.
An MIT article found that error rates for darker-skinned women reached 34% compared with less than 1 % for lighter-skinned men. These disparities reveal structural bias baked into training data and feedback systems.
Across Europe, the EU AI Act now treats such failures as foreseeable harms requiring traceability and documentation.
In the United States, federal regulators have begun enforcement actions against companies using opaque algorithmic decisions.
See: ShadowLeak Shows Zero Click AI Agent Risk
Canada’s proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) remains under parliamentary review and was impacted by prorogation in January 2025, leaving gaps between good intentions and enforceability, read the death of AIDA. Policymakers now are debating how AI accountability should evolve.
Many Canadian financial institutions already use machine learning to underwrite credit, detect fraud, and screen clients. Yet few publicly document how models are tested for bias or explainability. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) Guideline E-23 on Model Risk Management (2027) outlines how financial institutions should govern advanced analytics and AI models, including validation, bias testing, and accountability expectations, but without enforcement the framework still relies on internal discretion.
Regulators acknowledge the need for governance but lack consistent mechanisms to test, benchmark, or verify models across industries. The result is a patchwork system where AI tools can operate with little external visibility. Each institution assumes its safeguards are sufficient, even though no one has a full view of the risk landscape.
CSET’s model shows harm accumulates when oversight is fragmented. A 2024 OSFI-FCAC Risk Report on AI Uses and Risks at Federally Regulated Financial Institutions found that many financial institutions rely on third-party AI systems without full audit access or validation rights, which means models can change without regulators or even clients knowing. These dependencies create silent risk channels within the financial ecosystem.
And in Europe, a Europol “Facing reality? Law enforcement and the challenge of deepfakes” report cautions that deep-fake technology is proliferating rapidly and posing new risks for fraud, misinformation, and market manipulation. Each failure feeds the next, so it creates a feedback loop of risk spreading across jurisdictions and markets.
Why It Matters
Regulators and financial institutions have a limited window to close the governance gap before public trust erodes. The real challenge is not whether to slow innovation, but how to steer it responsibly. CSET’s findings suggest that effective AI governance must protect stakeholders while allowing systems to improve and scale safely. Overregulation can push innovation into unregulated spaces, but weak oversight leaves markets exposed to preventable harm.
See: Take Part in the Global AI in Finance 2030 Survey
CSET’s framework shows that AI harm grows from feedback loops where technical design, human behaviour, and oversight interact. Preventing harm means building governance that evolves at the same pace as the systems it regulates. The question is not whether AI will cause harm, but whether leaders will move fast enough to limit it. Accountability cannot be automated. It must be led.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
Fintech’s Role in Canada’s Productivity Revival
Policy | Nov 11, 2025
Image: Relative labour productivity Canada vs US (Source: CSLS 2025)
Canada’s Productivity Problem is Structural, Not Cyclical and Fintechs Can Help Align Policy and Firm Level Investment to Rebuild Growth
The Centre for the Study of Living Standards released a November 2025 report titled, "Can a Lack of Pro-Productivity Policies Explain the Secular Decline in Canada’s Productivity Growth?", outlining why Canada’s productivity growth has stalled even as macroeconomic policy remains stable. The study finds that steps in the 2025 federal budget while positive, will not by themselves reverse the long slowdown. The authors argue that deeper structural change is needed to rebuild the foundations of business investment and innovation in Canada.
What the Research Found
The report traces much of the post 2015 slowdown to long term structural and global factors that are as a result of how past policy choices influenced business behaviour. Verified causes that reduced the total investment per worker and limited productivity even as macro conditions stayed the same include:
See: Canada’s Productivity Depends on Intangible Tech Adoption
- Sharp fall in energy sector capital spending after the 2014 oil price collapse
- Persistent weakness in private sector investment outside resources
- Slower technology adoption among smaller firms
- Rising weight of service industries that rely less on physical capital
Evidence from major institutions supports this view. The analysis in the OECD 2025 Economic Survey of Canada and the IMF 2024 Article IV consultation finds that Canada’s productivity gap reflects long standing frameworks that influence how firms invest and compete. These findings show that the challenge is structural, a long term misalignment between national policy intent and firm level behaviour.
What Budget 2025 Adds to the Plan
The recently announced Budget 2025 aims to address parts of Canada's productivity, innovation and competition gaps. It includes improvements to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program by increasing the annual expenditure limit for the enhanced credit to $6 million, restoring eligibility for capital expenditures, and extending eligibility to Canadian public corporations. These measures target investment in intangible assets and innovation, the areas identified as weak.
See: How Competition Powers Canada’s Economic Growth
The budget also commits over $1 billion in resources over five years for AI compute and quantum computing while proposing a TechStat program to track technology adoption, as described in the digital infrastructure plan.
Finally, the budget also advances open banking and stablecoin rules that can improve competition and trust.
Incentivizing Investment to Unlock Firm Level Innovation
Productivity growth depends on what happens inside firms, how they invest, adopt technology, and organize production. Canada’s frameworks have been stable but haven't created strong enough conditions for private reinvestment in digital and intangible assets.
When policy creates the right incentives and financial infrastructure removes friction, investment decisions shift. That alignment between public objectives and private behaviour is where lasting productivity growth emerges.
Canada’s weakness lies in underinvestment in intangible assets such as software, data, intellectual property, and organizational know how. Past tools have not reversed this pattern and Canada needs to reward reinvestment in intangible and digital assets. NCFA has argued for tax credits that mobilize private capital for innovation for years including in an open letter to government during the COVID 19 pandemic, urging government to collaborate with fintechs while proposing investment tax credits to crowd in private capital.
The United Kingdom’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) offers a clear example of how targeted tax relief can mobilize private capital into early-stage ventures. Since its launch in 1994, the EIS has attracted over £30 billion of private investment into more than 53,000 small and growing companies, according to HM Revenue & Customs.
See: Regulating for Growth by Understanding Innovation
The EIS program provides individual investors with income tax relief of up to 30% on investments in qualifying startups, along with capital gains deferrals. Analysts credit it with strengthening the UK’s innovation ecosystem and building one of the world’s most active early-stage funding markets.
Closing Thought
Reducing interprovincial barriers and boosting competition are valuable but not sufficient on their own. The next step is to modernize how policy and firm level decisions connect. Fintechs can help turn policy into practice by improving access to capital, ensuring reliable and interoperable data, and scaling innovation across the economy. That's how Canada can turn structural reform into more practical and realized productivity gains.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
AI Agents and the New Return on Intelligence in Finance
AI Agent Research | Nov 10, 2025
Image: McKinsey and Google Cloud AI in Finance 2025 report covers
Insights from 2025 Google Cloud and McKinsey AI Finance Studies
November 2025 research from McKinsey's The State of AI in 2025 and Google's The ROI of AI in Financial Services reveal that the way banks measure value from AI is changing. Instead of chasing fast gains from early generative tools, the financial sector is moving toward agentic AI platforms that produce steady operational returns and stronger control over risk and cost.
See: Take Part in the Global AI in Finance 2030 Survey
- 77%of financial institutions report positive ROI from generative AI (about the same as last year), confirming steady value creation rather than hype
- 76% of executives cite productivity gains and 67% improved customer experience, with new AI use cases reaching market in three to six months
- 49% of firms plan to allocate over half of next year’s AI budget to agentic programs, a structural change from models to multi-agent systems
- High performers are over three times more likely to redesign workflows, have direct executive ownership of AI programs, and spend over 20% of digital budgets on AI
The ROI Story Behind the Numbers
Google’s global financial services study found that 77% of firms report positive ROI from generative AI this year, matching last year’s figure. The data point indicates that the return base has stabilized after an initial surge (not stagnation or decline). Among responders reporting higher revenue, 51% saw growth (6%-10%), while 30% achieved gains above 10%. These numbers dipped slightly year over year, pointing to a normalization phase as programs scale.
See: SEC Chair Backs Crypto Super Apps and AI Finance at OECD
The same study found that:
- 63% of firms saw overall business growth from AI
- 76% cited productivity improvement
- 67% of executives said customer experience improved, even though satisfaction scores were flat which is a sign that front-line automation works well for simple tasks but needs refinement for complex customer issues
- 52% of firms reported an improvement in security (slight decline as more move to specialized agentic systems to handle complex AI threats)
Spending Focus From Models to Agents
Spending priorities have shifted decisively:
- 53% of financial services executives now deploy AI agents
- 40% run more than ten in production
- 49% expect to allocate over half of next year’s AI budget to agentic programs
- Falling model costs have led 79% of institutions to increase AI spending (61% funding these initiatives through new capital instead of repurposed budgets)
See: Ripple’s $500 million Investment and 2 Years of Expansion
McKinsey’s global findings confirm this rotation:
- 88% of organizations report regular AI use
- About 33% say they have scaled it across the enterprise
- 62% are testing agents while 23% are already scaling them
- Less than 10% have achieved full deployment in any single business function
High performers stand out whose choices correlate directly with both revenue growth and cost reductions.
- 3x more likely to pursue transformation rather than incremental gains
- 3x more likely to have executive-level accountability for AI programs
- 5x more likely to allocate over 20% of digital budgets to AI
Banks Measurable Impact
Benefits are appearing fastest in software engineering, IT, customer service, and marketing. The McKinsey report found that organizations deploying AI across these functions experienced:
See: How Fintechs Can Build Enterprise AI Agents with Cohere
• Average productivity gains of 15%-30% in service and technology teams
• Cost decreases of up to 12% in customer operations and risk processing
• Deployment cycles reduced to three to six months, down from an average of twelve months in 2023
• Revenue growth between 6%-10% for over half of financial institutions using AI in production
• Improved fraud detection accuracy by up to 20%, especially among banks integrating multi-agent risk models
Organizations combining workflow redesign with governance and human oversight achieve higher and more consistent ROI than those focused only on model performance.
Outlook
According to Google and McKinsey's 2025 AI in finance research reports, AI has entered a new phase. The early boom in generative tools has given way to a steadier phase of operational performance driven by agents. The majority of institutions are already realizing returns, but the next iteration of value capture will come from how well they govern, measure, and scale these systems. Canada’s Opportunity In Efficient Reasoning AI its competitive edge, using discipline, design, and data to turn intelligence into growth.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
Budget 2025 Accelerates Fintech, AI, and Capital Growth
Federal Budget 2025 | Nov 5, 2025
Image courtesy of AI
Canada’s 2025 Budget Funds Open Banking, AI Infrastructure, and Venture Capital to Drive National Competitiveness
On November 4, 2025, the Government of Canada tabled Budget 2025, announcing targeted investments in several fintech and related sectors of interest including open banking, digital assets, artificial intelligence, and venture capital to strengthen national competitiveness and expand innovation.
NCFA welcomes these measures that taken together, form a coordinated strategy to modernize Canada’s financial system and accelerate technology adoption across sectors. While there are many parts to the 493 page PDF document designed to modernize government, stimulate investment and support key sectors of the economy (especially those being adversely impacted by the weight of Washington's tariff policy), this article focuses on 6 select areas of the budget.
1. Consumer-Driven Banking (Open Banking)
Budget 2025 confirms that Canada will move forward with the Consumer-Driven Banking Act to establish a national open banking framework. Oversight will rest with the Bank of Canada, which receives $19.3 million over two years to build and supervise the system. The $36.9 million previously allocated to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) will be reprofiled to align with this transition. To support cybersecurity and national security functions, $25.7 million over five years and $5 million ongoing are provided to CSIS and the RCMP.
The government also commits that Canadians will not be subject to fees when accessing and sharing their financial data under the new regime. This right will be included in federal privacy legislation to protect consumers from banks charging for data portability.
Timeline:
- 2025: Legislation and technical standards established
- 2026: The Real Time Rail becomes operational and widely used
- 2027: Open banking with full consumer functionality, including payment initiation, is expected by mid-2027
See: Canada’s Payments Innovation Push Gains Speed
The data access fee ban effectively aligns Canada with the UK and Australia, where accredited fintechs can access user-permitted financial data without paying incumbent banks, creating a more level playing field for startups.
Firms should focus on accreditation, API readiness, and user consent ecosystems now, while anticipating the full rollout with data portability and write-access functionality expected in 2027. The Bank of Canada’s new role brings institutional authority to open banking, aligning Canada’s model with prudential oversight practices seen in advanced financial systems.
2. Stablecoins and Digital Payments
Budget 2025 introduces a federal framework for fiat-backed stablecoins to protect consumers and ensure financial stability. Issuers must maintain adequate reserves, provide redemption rights, and follow strict disclosure and audit rules. The Bank of Canada will oversee compliance and receive $10 million over two years starting in 2026–27, with ongoing costs of about $5 million annually recovered from issuers. The Retail Payment Activities Act will be amended to extend oversight to payment service providers dealing in prescribed stablecoins.
See: Quantum Safe Stablecoins Meet Real Time Finance Needs
This is Canada's first major step towards integrating digital assets within regulated finance. Fintechs and payment firms can soon align product design with national standards for reserve management and risk controls. The framework signals Canada’s preference for stablecoins backed by traditional assets and issued under domestic supervision, distinguishing it from more permissive global approaches.
3. Financial Integrity and Compliance Technology
Budget 2025 strengthens financial system integrity by modernizing the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. The updates ban cash transactions over $10,000, prohibit third-party cash deposits, and authorize real-time information sharing through the new Integrated Money Laundering Intelligence Partnership. FINTRAC is added to the Financial Institutions Supervisory Committee, expanding coordination with the Bank of Canada, OSFI, and the Department of Finance.
This overhaul moves compliance toward continuous data exchange rather than static reporting. For regtech and fintech firms, it expands the market for monitoring, analytics, and automation tools. By embedding FINTRAC directly within the supervisory structure, the government is creating a multi-agency model similar to the UK’s Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce. These measures are foundational to supporting open banking and payments modernization safely.
4. Innovation and AI Competitiveness
Budget 2025 commits $925.6 million over five years starting in 2025–26 to build sovereign public AI infrastructure, including a Canadian sovereign cloud for compute capacity. Of this, $800 million comes from reallocated funds. The new Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation will coordinate partnerships with industry and direct investments through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Statistics Canada receives $25 million over six years and $4.5 million ongoing for AI and digital measurement programs.
See: Regulating for Growth by Understanding Innovation
The budget also reforms the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentive. The annual enhanced credit limit rises from $4.5 million to $6 million, and companies can elect pre-claim approval for faster reimbursements, reducing average processing from 180 days to 90 days by April 2026.
This is the largest coordinated investment in Canada’s digital productivity to date. Sovereign compute and AI infrastructure will help domestic firms train and deploy large models while maintaining data residency. The SR&ED reform improves liquidity during tight capital cycles for startups, software developers, and AI ventures by accelerating access to refundable credits. These changes directly respond to longstanding calls from the innovation community for faster turnaround and broader eligibility for digital R&D.
5. Venture Capital and Early-Stage Finance
To expand the growth capital ecosystem, Budget 2025 allocates $1 billion over three years starting in 2026–27 to the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) for the Venture and Growth Capital Catalyst Initiative. This fund will leverage pension and institutional investment to scale up Canadian venture capital and support new, diverse fund managers. Additional measures include:
- $84.4 million over four years ElevateIP
- $22.5 million over three years Innovation Asset Collective’s Patent Collective
- $75 million over three years for the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program
These measures help close gaps between early-stage funding and commercialization. The Catalyst Initiative could attract more private capital into growth-stage companies, while IP and R&D supports strengthen Canada’s intangible economy. For fintechs, this capital mobilization aligns with efforts to improve scaling conditions, enabling firms to move beyond domestic pilots into global markets. By expanding the Canada Growth Fund Venture Program and the Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative, Ottawa is trying to fill the scale-up gap where private funding has been slow to follow through.
6. Consumer Banking Fees and Access Reforms
Budget 2025 targets long-standing consumer frustrations with high fees, slow transfers, and limited access to funds. The government will review ATM and Interac e-Transfer fees charged by federally regulated institutions and will report on corrective actions in 2026.
By spring 2026, the government will also ban investment and registered account transfer fees, which average $150 per account, and mandate faster, transparent transfers. Fintechs such as Wealthsimple and Questrade have supported these measures for years, arguing they will remove switching barriers and increase competition.
Consumer access to deposited funds will also improve. The Bank Act will be amended to raise immediate access for cheque deposits from $100 to $150, close the gap between in-person and digital deposits, and shorten cheque-hold times by raising the threshold for early release from $1,500 upward.
See: BoC’s Carolyn Rogers Calls Banks an Oligopoly
To strengthen competition, the public-holding threshold for smaller banks and credit unions will double from $2 billion to $4 billion, supported by a new voluntary code of conduct on brokered deposit access and fair distribution.
These reforms respond directly to public frustration with high account transfer costs, after firms like Wealthsimple and Questrade called for faster, cheaper asset portability. Lower fees, faster access to money, and easier account switching will force incumbents to compete on value. Fintech companies gain room to build better portability and payments solutions within a simpler and more open regulatory landscape.
Closing Thought
Budget 2025 delivers the clearest roadmap for a more competitive financial services sector and digital economy. Open banking, AI, and venture capital measures finally intersect within a national policy framework designed to increase innovation and resilience. The obvious challenge now is delivery and execution. Timelines must hold, interoperability standards must stay open, and public-private coordination must translate funding into outcomes. Canada has a window to jump-start competitiveness by executing on what has already been announced rather than starting new consultations. The need is there. The foundation is set. It's now time to build and execute Canada.
Subscribe to NCFA Canada’s weekly newsletter for news, analysis and updates on fintech innovation, policy, and funding.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
Tangerine Turns to UK Fintech Engine and Lessons for Canada
Digital Banking | Nov 5, 2025
Image: Freepik/vectorpocket
Tangerine's Digital Banking Upgrade Shows Both Progress and Growing Opportunities in Canada’s Fintech Ecosystem
On November 4, 2025, Tangerine Bank announced a 10-year partnership with UK Fintech, Engine by Starling to deliver a next generation digital banking platform for more than two million Canadians. The agreement marks Engine’s first North American deployment, and for Tangerine, a commitment towards faster, cloud-based innovation.
For Canada and the buy Canadian movement, it's a reminder of the importance of building homegrown fintech infrastructure that can compete globally.
Global Technology Partnership With Local Implications
Tangerine chose Engine by Starling (part of the UK’s Starling Group) to provide a cloud-based, API-powered banking platform that includes digital onboarding, chequing and savings accounts, payments, and spending insights. The company already supports banks in Europe and Australia. By adopting Engine's platform solution, Tangerine is upgrading its technology foundation to deliver quicker feature rollouts, smoother operations, and better digital experiences for clients.
See: OSFI Approval Clears Questrade to Open Questbank in Canada
Engine’s expansion into North America has been steady. The company took part in the Grow London Global Fintech Trade Mission to North America 2025, which visited Toronto and New York in mid-October. The mission brought together sixteen UK fintechs to meet with banks, investors, and ecosystem partners, helping build connections that may have opened doors for the Tangerine partnership announced just weeks later.
A Gap and An Opportunity For Canadian Fintechs
Canada has a strong and growing community of fintech infrastructure firms such as VoPay, Fintel Connect, and Zevoy Canada that are developing payments, data, and Banking-as-a-Service platforms. What remains a challenge is scale. Few Canadian providers have reached the same visibility or size as the international players that dominate large transformation projects. More partnerships and work has to be done for domestic financial tech firms to capture these opportunities.
The Tangerine–Engine deal proves that if Canadian fintechs have the right mix of support, capital, and partnerships, they can compete similarly in global markets. It’s a chance for Canada’s policymakers, investors, and banks to create more conditions that help local technology providers grow into global suppliers of digital infrastructure.
Why It Matters
While it's great for millions of Canadians that Tangerine's upgrade will provide a faster and more modern digital banking experience, it highlights gaps and opportunities for growth in Canada's fintech ecosystem.
See: Canada’s Fintech and AI Firms Lead Deloitte’s 2025 Fast 50
Innovation is a global game for many fintechs and strengthening Canada’s fintech infrastructure will help ensure that the next digital banking platform upgrade has 'built in Canada' digitally printed on it.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
Perplexity and Getty Multi-year Images Licensing Deal
AI Licensing | Nov 3, 2025
Image: Freepik/rawpixel.com
Perplexity and Getty Images Partner to Bring Licensed Visuals Into AI Search
On October 31 2025, Getty Images and Perplexity announced a global multi-year agreement that gives Perplexity permission to display Getty’s creative and editorial photos within its AI search tools. The partnership uses Getty’s API to bring licensed images directly into Perplexity’s results with clear credits and links to the original source.
See: Perplexity’s $34.5B Chrome Bid Fuels Google Antitrust Heat
It’s one of the first major deals between an AI company and a content rights holder, an example of how licensing can help AI platforms respect creators while improving the quality of what users see.
Jessica Chan, Head of Content and Publisher Partnerships at Perplexity:
“Getty Images shares our belief that the future of AI‑powered discovery requires respecting the creators behind the content. Attribution and accuracy are fundamental to how people should understand the world in an age of AI"
Legitimizing Content Use and Addressing Concerns
Perplexity has faced several plagiarism and scraping allegations during the past year, including incidents involving Getty photos that appeared without license. The new agreement resolves those issues by providing legitimate access under clear terms.
Nick Unsworth, Vice President Strategic Development at Getty Images:
"This agreement paves the way for a productive and collaborative partnership between our companies, where we will work together to improve attribution of our contributors' work and Getty Images’ high‑quality creative and editorial content will enhance Perplexity’s platform.”
Users should note however that the license applies only to Perplexity itself. So while users can view Getty images in search results they can't download, reuse, or share them outside the platform.
Attribution does not grant any rights, and any reuse or commercial application still requires a separate license from Getty Images. There is no indication of sublicensing or user-level permissions in any official material.
Implications
The Perplexity–Getty deal is a win-win where a structured licensing partnership can strengthen trust and reduce copyright exposure while improving the user experience. For Getty, the deal adds a new business stream in AI search.
See: The Necessity of Copyrighting Your Voice in 2024 | 1,000 Artists Protest AI Copyright Plans with Silent Album
For Perplexity, it helps rebuild credibility after a year of public criticism while following through on stronger commitment to transparency and proper credit for creators. This partnership also builds on the company’s earlier initiative to share value with content creators through its 80/20 revenue-sharing program for publishers.
Outlook
Being transparent about where information comes from builds confidence with users and regulators. As Canada develops its own rules for AI and copyright, partnerships like this one show how respecting creators can go hand in hand with innovation.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
