Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
May 1, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Regulation And Policy

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.
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.
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.
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.
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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May 1, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Payments And Market Infrastructure

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.
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.
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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Apr 30, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Capital Markets And Funding

Image: Unsplash/John McArthur
On Apr 30, 2026, FrontFundr released its 2025 Community Capital Report with the following top line figures:
These numbers reflect FrontFundr platform activity across multiple exempt market channels in 2025, including startup crowdfunding, offering memorandum, accredited investor, FFBA, and private market financial products such as MICs, REITs, and funds.
FrontFundr’s 2025 performance shows strong growth in both capital and usage. The platform facilitated $83.2M across 8,064 investments, marking a 23% increase in capital and a 91% increase in investment transactions year over year.
Noticeably, participation is scaling faster than capital. Average investment size declined, while the number of investors per campaign increased. That means broader access and more distributed capital formation rather than larger individual allocations.
Financial products continue to drive the majority of platform volume, accounting for 84% of total capital raised. This reflects ongoing demand from accredited investors for income oriented products such as MICs, REITs, and funds, and reinforces that the headline $83.2M figure is not purely startup funding.
At the same time, platform growth is supported by increased engagement across sectors. Technology, manufacturing, and consumer facing companies continue to attract strong investor participation, particularly where companies already have an engaged audience or customer base.
Several campaign examples highlight how the model operates at scale. Edison Motors raised $6.8M from 2,667 investors. Blossom Social raised $1.93M from 1,028 investors in approximately six hours. Gander Social raised $2.0M from 2,517 investors. These campaigns reflect a shift toward high participation rounds where capital comes from large numbers of individual investors.
The equity crowdfunding under National Instrument 45-110 is growing quickly, but remains small relative to overall private markets activity. FrontFundr reported $4.79M raised from 4,320 investors under the exemption, representing 93% market share and growth of 181% in capital and 187% in participation year over year.
Early stage capital formation is becoming more distributed, with more investors participating through smaller allocations. Campaign success increasingly depends on community engagement, distribution, and trust rather than traditional investor networks alone.
At the same time, regulatory issuer limits are starting to be hit. Several campaigns approached the $1.5M annual cap under NI 45-110, including Edison Motors and Blossom Social. When demand reaches these limits, issuers must align with other exemptions to continue raising.
Globally, the ceiling is higher than what Canada currently allows. In the United States, Regulation Crowdfunding allows eligible issuers to raise up to US$5M in a 12 month period (and there's been many petitions to increase the cap to US$20M). In Europe, policymakers are pushing to increase platform thresholds toward €12M, while the UK has removed structural barriers to larger public raises under new platform rules.
Canada’s lower cap now stands out. If investor participation continues to scale, the current limit may constrain companies with strong demand and push larger raises toward more complex and costly structures.
Early stage investing still remains illiquid and uncertain. Platform structure, disclosure quality, and regulatory oversight remain essential as participation expands.
Peter-Paul Van Hoeken, Founder and CEO, FrontFundr:
“2025 was a defining year for Canada’s private capital markets and for FrontFundr. The scale and pace of growth we saw reflects a clear shift in how capital is being formed in Canada. Community capital is no longer a niche channel—it’s becoming a core part of how companies raise and how Canadians participate in private market investing.”
FrontFundr had a solid 2025 result with expanding platform activity driven by higher participation and broader investment access. Equity crowdfunding continues to grow albeit from a small base. Community capital plays an important role in Canada's early stage private markets. The next phase of growth will depend on how well regulation, infrastructure, and investor protection evolve alongside rising participation.
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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Apr 29, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Lending Consumer Credit And BNPL, Capital Markets And Funding

On Apr 29, 2026, VersaBank and FinanceIt Canada announce breakthrough in Real Time Structured Receivable Program pilot, an AI enabled funding model for point of sale finance receivables.
The change is in timing. Many point of sale lenders originate loans and then hold those receivables for 5 to 30+ days before financing them. VersaBank aims to fund individual receivables within hours. That shortens the gap between origination and funding and reduces the need for warehouse lines.
The program already operates at scale. VersaBank’s Structured Receivable Program portfolio exceeded CAD $4.4 billion as of Jan 31, 2026 and has grown at a 33% compound annual rate over the past five years. In the U.S., it completed more than US $310 million in fundings in its first year, above a US $290 million target.
The pilot with FinanceIt focuses on funding at or near the point of sale. FinanceIt originates consumer loans across home improvement, retail, and other merchant channels. If funding happens closer to origination, partners can reduce how long loans sit on balance sheet and lower the cost of carrying receivables.
This approach also changes how lending platforms access capital. Many point of sale and BNPL providers rely on warehouse facilities and forward flow agreements before selling loans into securitization or institutional channels. Shortening the time between origination and funding improves capital turnover and reduces reliance on those structures.
It's AI's decision support layer that's supporting faster decisions. VersaBank positions the program as using AI to assess and structure receivables in real time, allowing funding decisions without batch processing or manual review cycles.
David Taylor, President and CEO, VersaBank:
“This represents a breakthrough innovation in point-of-sale financing.”
It's the combination of faster decisioning and immediate access to capital. Funding can move closer to continuous, loan level decisions rather than batch processing. That allows capital to be deployed when a loan is approved instead of after it sits waiting in a pool. Over time, this leads to more precise pricing and better use of balance sheet capacity.
What happens when capital is deployed at the moment a loan is approved instead of days later, and which lenders are set up to operate at that speed?
Funding speed is becoming a core driver of economics in point of sale lending. When capital is deployed at origination, lenders can reduce costs and improve returns without taking on more credit risk.
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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Apr 28, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Banking And Credit Infrastructure

On Apr 27, 2026, Customers Bank announced a multiyear collaboration with OpenAI to deploy AI across commercial banking operations. The bank has nearly $26 billion in assets and already has 75% of team members using OpenAI powered tools. Customers Bank even used an AI voice clone on its last earnings call. The bigger change is how the bank is deploying AI agents across lending, onboarding, and payments.
On its Q1 call, Customers reported more than 500 internal agents and custom GPTs, over 28,000 hours saved through AI enabled workflows, and productivity gains equal to almost 15 full time employees. Q1 results also show $69.7 million in net income available to common shareholders, total deposits up $813.9 million from Q4, and total loans up $609.0 million from Q4.
Sam Sidhu, President and CEO, Customers Bancorp
“We expect a fundamental re-engineering of how Customers Bank operates. We have spent the last year building the operational and governance infrastructure to deploy AI at scale. This strategic collaboration with OpenAI gives us the frontier models, engineering expertise, and ability to co-create a roadmap toward becoming an AI-native bank."
Customers Bank wants AI inside its operating model, with OpenAI engineers working directly with the bank to automate commercial lending, deposit onboarding, and payments. The bank’s cubiX platform already processes about $2 trillion in annual payments volume, giving the collaboration a live operating base, not a pilot or lab only environment.
During Q1 2026 earnings call, Sidhu disclosed that his prepared remarks had been delivered by an AI clone, not read by him. While it was sure to be a memorable call at that point, it's important if AI can represent management's voice in a public market setting, boards need rules for disclosure, script approval, recordkeeping, and accountability before the next experiment becomes normalized.
AI banking use cases aren't just theatre. Customers Bank wants to reduce its commercial loan closing from 30-45 days to about 7 days. It also wants complex commercial account opening to fall from more than a day to under 20 minutes. They are targeting the slowest, most expensive parts of commercial banking.
This is where smaller banks and fintechs should pay attention. AI in banking won’t be won by buying a model and asking staff to use it. The value comes from redesigning workflows around agents, then keeping humans on approvals, exceptions, and risk judgement. That requires clean data, mapped processes, audit trails, escalation rules, and ownership of each AI output.
There's a regulatory approach too. Investor relations, lending decisions, onboarding, and payments all require accountable systems. If an agent drafts, routes, ranks, or speaks, the bank's still on the hook for the result. The lesson is not “let AI run the bank.” It's use AI to remove friction, but keep governance strong enough to prove who approved what and why.
Can Customers Bank turn AI from a productivity tool into an AI enabled engine powering lending, deposits, and payments?
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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Apr 28, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Insight | Capital Markets And Funding

Image: Freepik/DC Studio
On April 27, 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney launched the Canada Strong Fund, calling it Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund. Ottawa will seed the fund with $25B over three years and invest alongside private capital in Canadian projects tied to energy, critical minerals, infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, transport, data, telecommunications, and other national priorities.
The Canada Strong Fund is an attempt to change how Canada builds. The constraint isn't only capital. It's the shortage of investable assets that meet institutional standards on returns, timing, governance, approvals, and scale. Canada has capital but it has fewer projects that investors can underwrite with confidence compared to global peers.
The Rt. Hon. Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada:
"Through the Canada Strong Fund, all Canadians will have the opportunity to share directly in these benefits.”
Canada’s capital problem shows up as fewer productive assets and weaker productivity. Workers operate with fewer productive assets than peers in the United States and across the OECD. C.D. Howe Institute research shows that investment capital per worker is falling. In 2025, investment per worker in Canada is expected to be about 70% of the OECD average and about 55% of US levels.
The gap is larger in the areas that matter most for productivity. In 2024, Canada invested only about 41% as much as the US in machinery and equipment per worker, and about 32% as much as the US in intellectual property. Software investment per worker is about half US levels, while US research and development spending is roughly four times higher.
The gap is real and shows up in the economy. Canadian companies operate with fewer machines on the floor, less software across teams, and fewer systems they can scale. The Canada Strong Fund aims to close that gap by turning national priorities into projects investors can back with real capital.
The Canada Strong Fund will be seeded by the government with $25B over three years, but the outcome still depends on discipline.
Who's going to invest? Pension funds, infrastructure funds, banks, insurers, private credit, sovereign funds, and strategic corporates all have the capacity to deploy capital. Finance Canada says Canadian pension funds hold over $3T in assets.
Projects need to make money, get approved without long delays, and run with clear rules that keep politics out of investment decisions. Finance Canada says the fund will target market rate returns, operate at arm’s length through a Crown corporation, and focus mainly on equity investments. That helps align the fund with private investors. If execution slips, that alignment can break down quickly.
Alberta offers a provincial reference point launching the Heritage Savings Trust Fund in 1976, which grew from $1.5B to $31.9B by Dec 31, 2025. Over time, it also contributed more than $45.8B to public spending. That supported public priorities, but it limited compounding. A sovereign wealth fund cannot build long term national wealth if returns are regularly redirected to annual budgets.
Ottawa has also signalled a potential retail investment product that would allow Canadians to participate directly. Retail access requires clear disclosure, defined liquidity, strong suitability controls, and consistent reporting. Public participation raises the standard for execution.
On Apr 28, the federal government released the 2026 Spring Economic Update putting the Canada Strong Fund inside a broader build agenda. Capital is only one constraint. Canada also needs workers, approvals, governance, reporting, and project discipline.
Finance Canada says Team Canada Strong aims to recruit, train, and hire 80,000 to 100,000 skilled trade workers by 2030 to 2031. That matters because housing, infrastructure, energy, and major projects need enough skilled workers to turn capital into real assets.
For fintech and alternative finance, the practical role is retail access. If Canadians can invest in national projects, the experience needs to be simple, trusted, and clear. People need to know what they are buying, how risk is explained, how many flows in and out, and what kind of reporting they can expect after they invest.
Can Ottawa help build more productive assets while maintaining commercial discipline and public trust? If it can, the fund can help close Canada’s capital formation gap and give Canadians a direct stake in national wealth creation. If it cannot, Canada risks creating another financing structure that absorbs capital without improving how the country builds.
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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