Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Venture Funding and Building
Sport and capital: how Canada has transformed sports investment in recent years
March 30, 2026
In recent years, Canada has stopped treating sport merely as a matter of identity or social policy. Increasingly, it is viewed as a full-fledged economic sector: a lever to attract tourism, redevelop urban areas, support employment, strengthen regional brands, and mobilize both public and private capital. The numbers clearly reflect this shift. According to Statistics Canada, in 2023 the sport-related GDP reached 7.56 billion Canadian dollars, growing by 9% compared to the previous year, with organized sport rising to 2.1 billion and surpassing 2019 levels for the first time. In the same year, the sports sector accounted for 0.3% of the national economy.
A sector that matters more than it appears
The economic snapshot reveals an ecosystem that goes well beyond major professional clubs. In Canada, sport connects grassroots participation, high-performance competition, international events, infrastructure, media, sponsorships, and emerging digital platforms. The growth of sport GDP in 2023 indicates that the rebound was not limited to spectators returning to venues, but involved the entire value chain. On the social side, there is also a broad base supporting these investments: Statistics Canada reported that 55% of people aged 15 and over said they had participated in a sport in the previous 12 months.
This critical mass matters, as it makes public spending more justifiable and private strategies more sustainable. Where participation exists, there is demand for facilities, competitions, services, broadcasting content, and commercial products. Canada, in other words, is not investing in a vacuum: it is capitalizing on a widespread sports culture, although disparities remain across regions, income levels, and gender.
Public investment: more funding, but targeted priorities
On the public side, federal efforts have focused on three main areas: inclusion, safety, and high performance. In 2023–24, Sport Canada distributed 266.8 million Canadian dollars to national sports organizations, elite athletes, and initiatives aimed at increasing participation and strengthening safe sport practices. Additional federal measures included 15 million over two years for the Community Sport for All Initiative, 16 million over two years for the Sport Support Program, and an enhancement of the Athlete Assistance Program under the 2024 budget, bringing its annual funding to 40 million.
This is not merely a technical detail. It shows that the Canadian government has chosen to spread investment across the entire sports pyramid: grassroots access, athlete protection, and international competitiveness. In March 2025, the government also announced 10.5 million over two years for 13 national organizations through the Community Sport for All Initiative, aiming to reduce barriers for underrepresented groups. On the integrity front, Ottawa allocated 12 million annually from 2024 to 2026 for safe sport initiatives.
However, a structural tension remains: while the system is growing, many federations continue to report fragile infrastructures and rising costs. Public debate in Canada has highlighted that the key issue is not only how much is invested, but where and with what consistency.
World Cup 2026: a major catalyst for infrastructure and visibility
The project that has most significantly scaled up sports investment in Canada is the FIFA World Cup 2026. The country will host 13 matches across Toronto and Vancouver: six in Toronto and seven in Vancouver. Toronto will stage the first men’s World Cup match ever played on Canadian soil on June 12, 2026, featuring the national team, while Vancouver will host two Canada matches along with knockout-stage games.
The expected economic impact is one of the main arguments supporting the investment. FIFA has estimated that the tournament could generate 3.8 billion Canadian dollars in economic output for Canada, with an average GDP contribution of around 155 million per match and approximately 1,850 jobs created or supported for each game. For cities like Toronto, the event is not only about tourism and spending, but also about long-term legacy in infrastructure, youth participation, and organizational capacity.
Naturally, the issue of costs remains open, and in Canada political debate around budgets, governance, and returns is far from marginal. Yet this very discussion confirms a key point: sport is now treated as a driver of urban and economic development, rather than a secondary sector. The scale of the 2026 World Cup is pushing cities, provinces, commercial operators, and institutions to think in long-term strategic terms.
Private capital, media, and women’s sport: a changing market
While public investment has strengthened the foundation, private capital has raised the stakes. A clear example came in 2024, when Rogers announced the acquisition of Bell’s 37.5% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment for 4.7 billion Canadian dollars, reinforcing the central role of live sport in media and entertainment. The signal to the market was clear: broadcasting rights, live events, and major sports brands remain strategic assets.
See: Prediction Markets Tighten As Wealthsimple Enters
Perhaps the most interesting development, however, concerns women’s sport, which in Canada has entered a more structured phase. In 2024, the WNBA awarded Toronto its first franchise outside the United States, later named Toronto Tempo. Between 2025 and 2026, the project attracted new investors and high-profile partners. At the same time, professional women’s soccer gained a national platform with the launch of the Northern Super League, featuring six founding clubs and backed by major sponsors such as BMO and Toyota Canada.
This shift is not only symbolic. Investment in women’s sport reflects a broader recognition of untapped revenue streams: ticket sales, media rights, commercial partnerships, community engagement, and local activation. It aligns with a system aiming not just to grow in size, but also to diversify.
The sports betting sector: regulation, odds, and indirect economic impact
Another important piece of Canada’s evolving sports ecosystem is the regulated digital market, particularly in Ontario. Here, operators offering sports and event betting must be registered with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and, except for OLG, operate through agreements with iGaming Ontario. In 2024–25, Ontario’s iGaming market recorded 82.7 billion Canadian dollars in total wagers and 2.9 billion in gross gaming revenue, marking growth of over 30% compared to the previous year. While these figures include multiple gaming products, not only sports betting, they highlight the economic scale of the regulated market.
With the World Cup approaching, this topic is expected to re-enter public discussion, especially due to odds published by authorized platforms and Canada’s participation as a host nation. In this context, referencing a Canada sports betting site only makes sense within a regulated, transparent framework subject to oversight, as part of the broader commercialization of sport rather than as an independent driver of its growth.
The broader picture, however, goes beyond odds and platforms. In recent years, Canada has approached sport as a strategic sector: with targeted public funding, major events used as accelerators, multi-billion-dollar corporate transactions, and increasing attention to new audiences and emerging competitions. The real wager—economic rather than recreational—is that this infrastructure will deliver long-term returns. And for now, the signals suggest that Canada is fully committed to that path.
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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Retail Identity Verification: Stopping Return Fraud and Theft at the Point of Sale
March 29, 2026
Image: Unsplash/Priscilla Du Preez
Retail shrinkage — the industry term for inventory loss through theft, fraud, and administrative error — costs global retailers hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Within that figure, return fraud has grown into one of the most consistently underestimated line items. Unlike shoplifting, which is immediately visible and operationally disruptive, return fraud is quiet. It enters through the customer service desk, processed by a staff member under time pressure, usually accepted to maintain a positive customer interaction, and absorbed as a cost of doing business. Organized retail crime operations have identified this as a reliable revenue stream, and the scale of exploitation has grown accordingly.
The technology capable of changing this dynamic is retail identity verification: a systematic process of confirming the identity of customers at specific transaction touchpoints — most critically the returns desk — using automated document scanning rather than relying on staff judgment or paper-based log systems. When a fraudulent returner knows their identity is captured and matched against a return history database, the economics of the fraud change. The deterrent effect operates before any individual transaction is evaluated, and the audit trail it creates enables pattern detection that no manual system can replicate at the speed or scale required.
What is also important here is that return fraud does not operate in isolation. The same individuals and organized groups responsible for fraudulent returns are frequently responsible for the theft that enables those returns. Stolen merchandise returned for cash or store credit creates a clean revenue cycle for organized retail crime. That’s why identity verification at the returns desk intercepts not just the return itself but the downstream incentive that makes the preceding theft financially worthwhile.
What Is Retail Identity Verification?
Retail identity verification is the practice of confirming a customer’s identity at a point-of-sale or service transaction using a machine-readable identity document. In the returns context specifically, it means capturing the returning customer’s name and identity document details — typically via OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, the technology that extracts text from photographed documents — and recording that data against the return transaction in the retailer’s system.
In other words, it replaces the manual alternative — a staff member writing a customer’s name and address on a paper return form, or typing it into a terminal — with an automated scan that is faster, more accurate, and creates a structured, searchable record. The identity data captured is not used to authorize or deny the individual transaction in isolation. Its value lies in the cumulative pattern it reveals: a single customer attempting multiple no-receipt returns across locations, or a rotating group of individuals returning the same high-value items across store clusters.
Apart from this, retail identity verification in the age-restricted sales context serves a different but related function. Capturing identity at the point of sale for alcohol, tobacco, vaping products, or lottery tickets creates a documented compliance record that protects the retailer in the event of a licensing inspection or underage sale allegation. Thanks to this, a single scanning infrastructure can serve both loss prevention and compliance functions simultaneously, reducing the cost per use case when deployed across a multi-function retail operation.
The most widely used document capture methods are MRZ reading — the Machine Readable Zone, a standardized two-line strip at the bottom of passports and many national identity cards — PDF417 barcode scanning from the reverse of driving licences, and front-of-card OCR for documents without machine-readable zones. A capable retail scanning solution should handle all three, covering the range of documents customers are likely to present across the retailer’s operating region.
The Return Fraud Problem: Why Manual Controls Have Failed
Understanding why manual return controls consistently fail is essential context for designing an effective automated alternative. The failure modes are structural, not simply the result of inadequate staff training.
The No-Receipt Return Exploit
The majority of return fraud operates through the no-receipt return pathway. Retailers offering goodwill returns without a receipt — a policy designed to serve legitimate customers who have lost their proof of purchase — inadvertently create a channel through which stolen merchandise can be converted to cash or credit without any connection to the original transaction. From a financial perspective, restricting no-receipt returns too aggressively damages customer satisfaction and increases returns friction for honest customers. Capturing identity at the no-receipt return point resolves the dilemma: the policy can remain customer-friendly while the identity record creates the accountability that deters systematic abuse.
Cross-Location Fraud Rings
Organized retail crime groups exploit the siloed nature of most retail loss prevention systems. An individual executing multiple returns at different store locations generates no alert in any single store’s records, even if their cumulative return volume is clearly abusive. Identity capture linked to a centralized return history database changes this dynamic entirely: the pattern that is invisible store-by-store becomes immediately visible at the network level. These mechanics boost the detection rate for organized cross-location fraud without requiring any change to individual store return policies.
Staff Judgment Under Transaction Pressure
Return desk staff are typically trained to prioritise customer experience and process transactions efficiently. Challenging a customer on a suspicious return requires judgment, confidence, and a willingness to create conflict — qualities that vary significantly across individuals and that diminish under queue pressure. Automated identity capture removes the judgment element: the scan is a standard part of the process applied to every return, not a discretionary challenge that a staff member must decide to initiate. This positively affects consistency and removes the interpersonal friction that causes staff to avoid challenging transactions they should be questioning.
When Retail Identity Verification Makes the Strongest Case
Identity verification at the point of sale delivers its strongest returns in specific retail contexts. Here’s when the investment is most clearly justified:
- High-value electronics and consumer goods retail. Electronics, gaming equipment, power tools, and premium beauty products are the categories most targeted by organized return fraud, because their high unit value makes individual return transactions financially significant and their resale market is robust. Deploying identity verification at the returns desk for transactions above a defined value threshold — or for all no-receipt returns — concentrates the deterrent where the financial exposure is highest.
- Multi-site retail chains with centralized loss prevention. The full value of identity verification in a return fraud context is only realized when identity data is aggregated centrally and cross-referenced across locations. A chain with a single store gains a deterrent effect; a chain with fifty locations gains a network-level detection capability that can identify cross-location fraud rings within days of their first transactions.
- Age-restricted product categories. Alcohol, tobacco, vaping products, and lottery ticket retailers face dual compliance obligations: age verification at the point of sale and, in many jurisdictions, identity capture requirements tied to licensing conditions. A scanning infrastructure serving both functions delivers compliance value across both regulatory frameworks from a single integration point.
- High-return-rate product categories. Clothing, footwear, and furniture categories with inherently high legitimate return rates are also disproportionately targeted by wardrobing fraud — the practice of purchasing an item, using it once, and returning it as unworn. Identity capture combined with return frequency analysis can identify individuals whose return patterns are statistically inconsistent with legitimate shopping behaviour across this category.
What a Reliable Retail Identity Verification System Should Have
When evaluating identity verification solutions for retail deployment, pay attention to the following criteria:
- Multi-format document reading capability. You should look for systems that read MRZ strips, PDF417 barcodes, and front-of-card OCR text, covering the full range of identity documents customers are likely to present across the retailer’s geographic footprint.
- On-device processing with no cloud image transmission. Document images contain personal data. The system should process captured document data locally, returning structured fields — name, date of birth, document number — without transmitting raw document images to external servers. This is both a data protection requirement and a practical security measure.
- Centralized return history database with cross-location matching. The detection value of identity verification in a return fraud context depends on centralizing return records and querying that database in real time at every scan. You should attentively analyze whether the vendor’s architecture supports multi-site data aggregation and whether the query latency is low enough to avoid adding visible delay to the return transaction.
- Configurable alert thresholds by return value and frequency. Not every return warrants the same response. The system should allow the retailer to configure alert triggers — a specific number of returns within a defined period, a cumulative return value threshold, or a combination — that generate a staff notification or supervisor escalation rather than applying uniform scrutiny to every scan.
- EPOS integration with minimal workflow disruption. Typical integrations include direct API connection to EPOS — Electronic Point of Sale — systems, tablet-based standalone operation for dedicated return desks, and SDK embedding within existing retail management applications. It will be helpful to confirm that the integration path does not require modifications to the EPOS that would affect the primary sales workflow.
- Data retention and privacy compliance documentation. Identity data captured at the returns desk is personal data subject to GDPR and equivalent frameworks. We recommend confirming the vendor’s data retention policy, the legal basis for processing, and their approach to data subject access requests before deployment, as these obligations fall on the retailer as the data controller.
How to Implement Identity Verification at the Returns Desk
Implementing identity verification in a retail returns workflow requires attention to three dimensions simultaneously: the technical integration, the operational process design, and the customer communication approach. Neglecting any one of these dimensions will limit the effectiveness of the others.
Image Unsplash, Simon Hattinga Verschure
Define the Scan Policy Before Deployment
Before any technology is deployed, it is crucial to define precisely when identity capture is required: all returns without a receipt, all returns above a defined transaction value, all returns in specific high-risk product categories, or some combination. This policy decision shapes the entire implementation — the workflow design, the staff training, and the customer communication. We recommend starting with a narrowly defined scope — no-receipt returns above a value threshold — rather than attempting to capture identity on every return transaction from the outset, as this allows the team to refine the process before extending it.
Train Staff on the Customer Communication Script
The most operationally sensitive element of identity verification at the returns desk is not the technology — it is how staff present the requirement to customers. A customer who understands that identity capture is a standard policy applied consistently to all no-receipt returns is significantly more likely to comply without conflict than one who perceives it as a personal accusation. Staff training should include a specific, practiced script for introducing the scan request, handling common objections, and escalating to a supervisor when a customer refuses. It will be helpful to role-play these interactions during training rather than relying on written guidance alone.
Communicate the Policy Visibly at Return Points
Displaying clear signage at the returns desk indicating that identity may be required for no-receipt returns serves two functions simultaneously. First of all, it sets customer expectations before the interaction begins, reducing the likelihood of conflict when the scan is requested. Secondly, it functions as a deterrent in its own right: a fraudulent returner who sees that identity will be captured may elect not to proceed with the transaction before any staff interaction occurs. Given this, the signage itself delivers measurable loss prevention value at zero incremental operational cost.
Conclusion
Return fraud and organized retail theft are not problems that goodwill policies and staff vigilance can solve at scale. The economics favour the fraudster in any system where returns are processed on trust, where no identity record is created, and where pattern detection requires manual cross-referencing of paper logs. Retail identity verification changes those economics by creating a structured identity record at the transaction point, aggregating that data centrally, and making cross-location and cross-time patterns immediately visible to loss prevention teams.
See: LinkedIn Identity Checks Show The New Privacy Cost Of Trust
The implementation investment is modest relative to the shrinkage it addresses. A well-deployed system pays for itself within the first promotional season it covers by reducing the no-receipt return abuse that concentrates around high-value product launches and seasonal promotions. Apart from this, the compliance value it delivers for age-restricted product categories converts what might otherwise be a single-purpose loss prevention tool into a shared infrastructure investment with returns across multiple operational functions. Given this, retailers evaluating their loss prevention strategy should treat identity verification at the returns desk not as a future consideration but as a near-term priority.
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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NCFA Weekly Fintech Intelligence Mar 21-27, 2026
March 27, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Whisperer Weekly Intelligence | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Regulation And Policy, Payments And Market Infrastructure, Risk Compliance And Regtech
Image: Freepik
This live weekly NCFA intelligence page tracks financial technology developments that significantly affect how fintechs build, sell, raise capital, and operate under scrutiny. Coverage prioritizes Canada and includes global events that directly influence competitive conditions, market access, and execution realities across fintech sectors. This page will be updated throughout the week with market movers in a live format and then each week we'll close the prior week's contents in prep for the upcoming week, and continue on a rolling basis. (Missed prior week's Fintech Whisperer? (December 6-12, 2025, December 13-19, 2025, January 1-9, 2026, January 10-16, 2026, January 17-23, 2026, January 24-30, 2026, January 31-February 6, 2026, February 7-13, 2026, February 14-20, 2026, February 21-27, 2026, February 28-March 6, 2026, March 7-13, 2026, March 14-20, 2026).
Weekly Fintech Market Intelligence Mar 21 - 27, 2026
Digital Assets, Blockchain And Tokenization
RBA Moves Tokenised Market Work Beyond Pilot Stage
Mar 25, 2026, Australia
- Project Acacia covered tokenised bonds, repo, deposits, and funds with settlement using stablecoins, deposit tokens, wholesale CBDC, and ESA balances.
- The RBA tested issuing wholesale CBDC onto external ledgers to examine cross-ledger settlement.
- Next step is a longer sandbox focused on testing how tokenised money connects with existing systems such as RITS.
The RBA is moving past short pilots. The focus now is how tokenised money works with existing settlement systems and what holds up under real use.
Capital Markets And Funding
SEC Approves CAT Amendment Removing Online Query Tool
Mar 27, 2026, United States
- The SEC approved a CAT amendment that removes references to the online targeted query tool from the CAT NMS Plan.
- Regulators will continue to access CAT data through user defined direct queries and bulk extracts instead.
- The earlier CAT cost savings amendment estimated $2.5 million to $3.5 million in savings from eliminating the online targeted query tool.
The SEC is narrowing one regulator facing CAT access path in the name of cost savings while keeping other query methods in place. That doesn't change trading rules, but it can change how efficiently regulators search market activity and build surveillance cases, and to that extent there are some concerns around reduced oversight.
CIRO Finalizes Fully Paid Securities Lending Rule Amendments
Mar 26, 2026, Canada
- CIRO sets new rules and eligibility criteria for fully paid securities lending and financing arrangements.
- All existing exemptions end on Apr 27, 2026, and dealer programs must comply with the updated framework.
Fully paid lending goes from exemption based programs to a standard rule set. Dealers need to update inventory funding structures and controls before the effective date.
US House Holds Tokenization Hearing On Capital Markets Modernization
Mar 25, 2026, United States
- The U.S. House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on tokenization and the future of securities markets.
- The hearing treated tokenization as a capital markets modernization issue rather than a niche digital asset topic.
- Witnesses included DTCC, Nasdaq, SIFMA, Blockchain Association, and Plume Network.
- The discussion put exchange infrastructure, market plumbing, and securities treatment into the same policy frame.
Tokenization is now being discussed inside the core U.S. capital markets policy process, with major market infrastructure and exchange voices at the table. That raises the odds that tokenized securities will be treated as a market structure question tied to trading, clearing, settlement, and custody, not only as a digital asset issue.
New York Stock Exchange And Securitize Sign MOU To Support Tokenized Securities
Mar 24, 2026, United States
- New York Stock Exchange and Securitize agree to a memorandum of understanding focused on digital transfer agent infrastructure and broker dealer participation for issuer sponsored tokenized securities on an NYSE affiliated digital trading platform.
- Securitize is named as the first digital transfer agent eligible to mint blockchain native securities for corporate or ETF issuers on the platform.
- NYSE plans a digital transfer agent program intended to support on chain settlement of tokenized security transactions.
- Securitize Markets is expected to become one of the broker dealer participants on the platform.
Lynn Martin, President, NYSE Group: “As we explore how tokenization can enhance capital markets, it is critical that new infrastructure is developed in a way that preserves the trust, transparency, and protections investors expect. Securitize brings deep experience in digital asset infrastructure and transfer agency, making them a strong partner in helping design this next generation of market structure.”
Payments And Market Infrastructure
RBI Sets Payments Vision 2028 With Fraud, Cross Border, And Switching Priorities
Mar 27, 2026, India
- RBI’s Payments Vision 2028 sets the course through December 2028 under the theme “Shaping India’s Payment Frontier.”
- The plan includes a shared responsibility framework for unauthorised digital payment fraud, a Cyber Key Risk Indicators framework for non bank payment system operators, and a review of cheque security and electronic cheques.
- RBI also plans a review of the cross border payments framework, will examine a single window authorisation process under the PSS Act and FEMA, and will explore a Payments Switching Service to let customers switch providers more easily.
India is moving from payment expansion to payment control. Fraud liability, cyber resilience, cross border authorisation, and switching now sit closer to the centre of the next build cycle for banks, payment firms, and fintech infrastructure providers.
Visa Joins Canton Network To Support Private Onchain Payments
Mar 25, 2026, Global
- Visa says it will join the Canton Network as a Super Validator, becoming the first major global payments company in the network’s validator group.
- The move will support stablecoin payments, settlement, and treasury use cases for banks and financial institutions.
- Canton is built to let institutions use shared blockchain infrastructure without exposing sensitive transaction data.
- Stablecoin settlement activity is running at an annualized $4.6B and that it supports more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across more than 50 countries.
Visa is getting into the infrastructure layer. Privacy has been one of the main blockers for banks and large financial institutions using shared blockchain systems. If that barrier starts to fall, onchain payments, settlement, and treasury activity can move closer to core financial market infrastructure.
Bank of Canada Releases 2025 FMI Oversight Activities Annual Report
Mar 24, 2026, Canada
- Bank of Canada publishes its Oversight Activities for Financial Market Infrastructures 2025 Annual Report covering designated clearing and settlement systems.
- The notice highlights improvements designated FMIs made to risk management practices in 2025.
- The notice also highlights ongoing and new expectations set by the Bank for designated FMIs in 2026 and beyond.
FMI oversight expectations set the operating floor for payments and clearing infrastructure, which can flow through to participant requirements, vendor controls, and resilience planning.
BMO Introduces Tokenized Cash Platform With CME And Google Cloud
Mar 24, 2026, Canada / United States
- BMO says it is the first bank to offer CME Group’s tokenized cash solution on Google Cloud Universal Ledger.
- The platform is designed to support 24/7 institutional movement of value for margin, collateral, trading, and settlement workflows.
- Clients can convert dollars into a tokenized instrument for use with margined products at CME Group.
- The platform also lays the groundwork for tokenized deposits to support broader payment and treasury use cases.
This brings tokenized cash into live institutional money movement. It's a major Canadian bank using tokenized cash to support real margin, collateral, and settlement flows on a continuous basis. Tokenized money is moving deeper into market infrastructure and gives regulated institutions a way to move value when markets need it 24/7, not only during banking hours.
Deloitte And Stablecorp Bring QCAD Into Canadian Bank Workflows
Mar 23, 2026, Canada
- Deloitte Canada and Stablecorp announced an alliance to deploy QCAD-based stablecoin infrastructure with Canadian financial institutions.
- The integration targets bank use cases including liquidity management, inter-bank clearing, cross-border payments, and treasury operations.
- Deloitte positions QCAD as a Canadian-compliant stablecoin that can plug into existing banking systems and workflows.
- The timing aligns with expected progress on Canada’s federal stablecoin framework and Bill C-15.
Deloitte and Stablecorp are building integration paths for financial institutions to use QCAD inside existing systems. The work targets clearing, treasury, and cross-border flows, but no deployments or pilots have been confirmed yet. Treat this as a signal that stablecoin infrastructure is being wired into bank workflows ahead of regulatory clarity.
Regulation and Policy
UMIR Guidance Update Project Reaches Completion
Mar 27, 2026, Canada
- The UMIR Guidance Update Project reaches completion on Mar 27, 2026, pointing dealer members to updated guidance notes published across Phase 1 and Phase 2.
- The package focuses on clarity and usability, with non material edits that improve accuracy and make guidance easier to find and apply.
- A small subset of guidance notes does not get republished because they require material changes or no longer apply.
This closes a multi phase refresh and sets a new baseline for dealer compliance interpretation across UMIR topics, which can flow into policy mapping, training, and vendor rule logic.
Canada Expands Bank Of Canada Mandate To Stablecoins And Open Banking
Mar 26, 2026, Canada
- Bill C-15 received Royal Assent and expands the Bank of Canada’s role in digital finance and payments.
- The Bank will supervise stablecoin issuers and oversee the consumer-driven banking framework.
Bill C-15 puts stablecoins, payments, and consumer-driven banking under a more unified central bank structure. Firms now need to plan for supervision across digital money and data-sharing models, not treat them as separate tracks.
CIRO Sets Conditions For Dealer Access To Event Contracts
Mar 26, 2026, Canada
- CIRO sets how its rules apply when dealers trade or facilitate event contracts and prediction markets.
- Dealers must notify CIRO before offering these products and meet terms tied to authorization.
- Contracts tied to elections or political events are not permitted, and products must meet defined restrictions including minimum term length.
Event contracts are now included in a defined Canadian dealer framework. Firms need to clear product design, compliance, and notification before going live.
FCA Sets Out Next Phase Of Smarter Regulation
Mar 26, 2026, United Kingdom
- The roadmap targets faster authorisations using AI, including use of generative AI to review documents firms submit, with rollout across authorisations and supervision.
- It also outlines a new sandbox environment to test automated data feeds between firms and the regulator, aimed at cutting manual work and improving timeliness and reliability of information.
- The update includes a reporting burden reduction package that removes three regular data returns and reduces the frequency of another, plus a larger move of regulatory tasks into My FCA.
- A linked 2026/27 perimeter report calls for modernisation of payments regulation to mitigate risks while supporting innovation.
AI assisted authorisations and automated reporting feeds can shorten approval timelines and change how supervision picks up issues from live data.
FCA Consults On Simplified Financial Advice To Expand Access
Mar 25, 2026, United Kingdom
- FCA consults on changes intended to make it easier for firms to deliver simplified forms of individualized financial advice for consumers with more straightforward needs.
- FCA proposes consolidating suitability expectations, clarifying flexibilities around using sufficient information, and changing how ongoing advice reviews work, including moving away from a fixed annual review toward periodic reviews based on client needs.
- The consultation also opens a discussion on the future of trail commission and it states qualification standards and adviser charging rules remain unchanged.
- FCA sets the consultation close date as May 22, 2026 and links the full consultation PDF CP26/10 Simplifying the Pensions and Investment Advice Rules
Sarah Pritchard, Deputy Chief Executive, Financial Conduct Authority: “We want to see more people getting supported, who aren’t currently, and a market that innovates and offers tailored services to meet differing consumer needs.”
CIRO Publishes Enforcement Document Production Guide
Mar 25, 2026, Canada
- The Document Production Guide sets Enforcement Staff expectations for producing documents, records, and electronically stored information in response to a Request for Information issued under IDPC Rule 8100 or Mutual Fund Dealer Rule 6.
- The guide takes effect May 1, 2026.
- The guide frames preservation of data and metadata as part of maintaining integrity and reliability of records, and it aims to reduce clarification and resubmission cycles during investigations.
Dealers and fintech vendors that support eDiscovery, recordkeeping, surveillance, and investigation response workflows now have a clear CIRO baseline for data handling, metadata preservation, and production process design.
California Jury Opens A New Liability Lane For Addictive Platform Design
Mar 25, 2026, United States
- A Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable for harming a 20 year old plaintiff through negligent platform design and failure to warn, awarding $6M in damages. Reuters reports Meta is responsible for 70% of the award and Google for 30%.
- Reuters says the case serves as a bellwether for thousands of similar California state claims, while the related federal multidistrict litigation includes more than 2,400 lawsuits against social media companies over youth harm.
- The ruling is important because the jury accepted a design based theory tied to engagement mechanics instead of treating the dispute only as a content moderation issue. That raises the pressure on recommendation loops, infinite scroll, autoplay, and similar retention features.
- Pressure is building on a second front. On Mar 24, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375M after finding it liable for misleading users about platform safety and endangering children. Reuters reports a second phase starts May 4 and could seek court ordered changes to Meta’s platforms.
- Meta has already warned investors that a number of U.S. youth related trials are scheduled for 2026 and may result in a material loss, which puts this issue inside formal enterprise risk disclosure rather than public relations damage control alone.
Courts are beginning to test whether engagement led product design itself can create liability at scale. If that theory survives, the impact reaches beyond social media. Any digital product that depends on compulsive use patterns, especially where minors or vulnerable users are involved, faces legal scrutiny and compliance costs.
August 6 update: A New Mexico court ordered Meta to establish a US$567M abatement fund, bringing the financial remedies in the case to US$942M, and imposed youth-safety requirements covering age assurance, teen usage and notifications, adult-minor contact controls and AI-chatbot interactions involving minors. Meta plans to appeal.
CIRO Tightens Guidance On Third Party Electronic Market Access
Mar 24, 2026, Canada
- CIRO issued guidance on third-party electronic access to marketplaces through direct electronic access, routing arrangements, and order execution services.
- The note ties the guidance to UMIR Rules 6.2, 7.1, 7.13, and 10.16, covering order identifiers, trading supervision, direct electronic access, and gatekeeper obligations.
- CIRO says the framework addresses risks tied to electronic access, including liability, credit, market integrity, sub-delegation, technology or systems, and regulatory arbitrage.
- The guidance also gives examples on order identification and designation, including use of the jitney marker, and highlights changes affecting order execution services, direct electronic access, and routing arrangements.
As more execution flows move through automated and intermediated channels, CIRO is making it clearer who is responsible, how orders must be marked, and what supervision has to look like. That raises the operating standard for dealers, trading desks, legal and compliance teams, and firms providing marketplace access. Electronic access remains open, but responsibility for supervision, order marking, and control cannot blur as more parties exist between the client and the marketplace.
Bipartisan Senate Bill Targets Sports Prediction Contracts
Mar 23, 2026, United States
- Senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis introduced the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act to prohibit CFTC registered entities from listing contracts that resemble sports bets or casino style games.
- The press release says a March Madness winner contract has already exceeded $100 million in trading volume and Super Bowl prediction market volume topped $1 billion in 2026.
- The bill argues these contracts are being offered in all 50 states, including states that restrict or prohibit sports betting.
- The proposal would remove ambiguity in the Commodity Exchange Act and push sports style event contracts back under state gambling control rather than federal derivatives oversight.
This raises the risk that sports prediction markets face a direct statutory limit before the category settles into a stable regulatory path. Congress is now testing whether these contracts belong inside federal market infrastructure or back inside state gambling rules. Important for exchanges, prediction market operators, legal teams, and investors betting on event contracts as a durable product category.
AI Finance And Data Governance
US Treasury Launches AI Innovation Series For Financial Stability
Mar 23, 2026, United States
- Treasury says the Office of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and Treasury’s Artificial Intelligence Transformation Office launched an AI Innovation Series, described as a public private initiative focused on financial system strength and resilience.
- The series will run across four roundtables that convene financial institutions, technology firms, regulators, and specialized experts to focus on high value AI use cases and practical approaches for scaling AI while preserving safety and soundness.
- Treasury frames AI adoption as increasingly embedded across fraud detection, cybersecurity, credit underwriting, and operational risk management, and it links the series to how governance and supervisory approaches keep pace with enterprise AI deployment.
This series puts AI governance in focus for banks and fintechs, especially around model risk, cybersecurity controls, and how supervisors assess AI driven decisioning inside core workflows.
Banking And Credit
China Pushes Blockchain In Bank Tax Lending Model
Mar 27, 2026, China
- China’s State Taxation Administration and National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly told local tax authorities and banks to deepen the bank tax interaction model and encouraged the use of blockchain and privacy computing for compliant innovation.
- The notice tells banks to improve credit models, raise loan approval efficiency, and expand financing support for compliant taxpayers, especially small businesses.
- An official explainer says the bank tax interaction mechanism had delivered 45.1772 million loans totalling 15.7 trillion yuan by the end of 2025.
China is using tax data, regulated data sharing, and specific technologies to push more SME credit through banks. That is a lending infrastructure signal, not just a blockchain headline.
Conclusion
Regulators are setting clearer boundaries, and infrastructure is moving into production at the same time. That combination raises the cost of getting it wrong and shortens the window to get it right. Teams need working controls, real vendor oversight, and systems that hold up under load before scaling anything customer facing. NCFA offers various curated resources to help founders and investors stay current on developments that impact fintech markets, subscribe to NCFA weekly newsletter updates, view a rundown of current fintech news and insights, or dive into the latest fintech industry research.
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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CoinPayments Taps OSL To Expand Across APAC
Mar 27, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Payments And Money Movement
Image: Freepik
Local APAC Rails and Fiat Off Ramps
On March 27, 2026, CoinPayments partnered with OSL Group to expand in APAC. The deal gives CoinPayments access to local payment rails and fiat off ramps across the region.
APAC is already a large and fast growing crypto market. Chainalysis' 2025 global crypto adoption reported that APAC transaction volume increased to $2.36T, up from $1.4T in a 12 month period ending June 2025. Crypto payments need merchants for local conversion, payout, and settlement that works in the market they serve.
CoinPayments brings real scale into that push. The company said earlier this month that it has processed more than $50B in crypto transactions and supports more than 250,000 merchants globally.
OSL brings a different advantage. After completing its Banxa acquisition in January 2026, OSL said its regulatory footprint expanded to more than 40 trading and payment licenses and registrations across the United States, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
That gives the partnership a clear commercial logic. CoinPayments brings merchant reach. OSL brings regulated payout and conversion infrastructure. The March 27 announcement also builds on CoinPayments’ existing work with Banxa, so the operating link was already there before this APAC push.
Talking Point
In crypto payments, which creates more leverage over time: merchant reach or control of local payout and off ramp infrastructure?
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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McKinsey AI Vulnerability Reveals Enterprise Risk
Mar 26, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Artificial Intelligence And Data
Internal AI Security Gaps Expose Real Operational Risk
On March 1, 2026, CodeWall, a security research firm focused on AI systems, privately reported security gaps to McKinsey. The firm said its agent found 22 unauthenticated endpoints, then chained a SQL injection issue and other weaknesses to gain read and write access across the production environment. CodeWall said the reachable data included 46.5 million chat messages, 728,000 files, 57,000 user accounts, 384,000 AI assistants, and 94,000 workspaces. It also said prompts, model configurations, and RAG related data were reachable.
On March 2, 2026, McKinsey acknowledged the findings and patched the unauthenticated endpoints the same day.
On March 9, 2026, CodeWall publicly shared research on vulnerabilities in McKinsey’s internal AI platform Lilli.
On March 11, McKinsey released this statement about the vulnerability and that a third party forensic review found no evidence that unauthorized parties accessed client data or client confidential information.
What Actually Happened
Public API documentation appears to have exposed a map of the system. Some endpoints reportedly required no authentication. One of them allegedly allowed database manipulation through JSON keys, which opened the door to SQL injection. From there, CodeWall said it could determine live production data and reach much deeper parts of the platform.
This incident doesn't point first to a model failure. It points to ordinary application security weaknesses around an AI system that had become deeply embedded in internal work.
McKinsey’s Response and What It Means
McKinsey didn't confirm the full scale of the researcher claims. Instead, it focused on the response. The company said it fixed the issue quickly and found no evidence that unauthorized parties accessed client data or client confidential information.
See: OSFI and GRI Workshops Reveal What Regulated AI Needs
Having said that, the reported scale of reachable internal material was large enough to raise questions about internal knowledge exposure, employee work patterns, and intellectual property concentration in one system.
CodeWall said prompt and configuration layers were reachable. If true, it means a bad actor could have potentially altered how the system retrieves information or generates answers. In an internal AI tool, that can create wrong outputs that look normal to staff.
That's where this type of incident becomes more useful for fintechs and financial firms. A publicly visible outage gets noticed whereas quietly altered outputs may not. In regulated environments, that can affect approvals, reviews, client treatment, policy interpretation, and internal decision support before anyone spots the pattern.
The Wider Lesson For Financial Services
Banks, lenders, insurers, wealth firms, and fintechs are building similar internal AI layers right now. They connect those tools to policy documents, research, support logs, internal files, and customer related workflows because it saves time and helps staff move faster.
See: Gilles Brassard Turing Award Puts Quantum Security In Focus
But that convenience comes with risk given that AI often pulls sensitive access into one place. If permissions are weak, endpoints are exposed, or prompt controls aren't protected, one internal tool can become a wider point of failure.
A key lesson founders and operators should take from this case, is to ask whether the application around it is locked down, whether prompts and retrieval rules are treated as sensitive assets, whether permissions are tight, and whether anyone has tested the system the way an attacker would.
Conclusion
Enterprise AI doesn't erase old security mistakes. It can magnify them by concentrating data, access, and trust inside a single interface.
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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Better And Coinbase Launch Token Backed Mortgages
Mar 26, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Banking And Credit, Digital Assets And Tokenization
Digital Asset Collateral Backs Standard Home Finance Mortgages
On March 26, 2026, Better and Coinbase launched the first token backed conforming mortgage. Qualified borrowers can pledge Bitcoin or USDC to fund a cash down payment while still taking out a standard mortgage that meets Fannie Mae rules. The structure lets borrowers use digital assets without selling them first and without automatically triggering a taxable sale event.
The product targets a large and growing borrower base. Better and Coinbase put the addressable market at 52 million Americans who own digital assets, equal to 20% of American adults. They also mention quite an age split, with 45% of younger investors holding crypto versus 18% of older investors. That age gap means it's much harder for younger buyers to meet traditional down payment cash requirements, yet many already hold part of their savings in digital assets.
See: OSC Opens Door for Tokenized Long-Term Funds
There are no margin calls and no required top ups if Bitcoin falls in value. Price moves alone do not trigger liquidation. Collateral comes into play only if a borrower becomes 60 days delinquent, under the same treatment applied to standard conforming mortgages. Borrowers using USDC can also earn rewards on pledged balances, which may offset mortgage payments and lower the net effective rate.
The buyer profile is also broader than a luxury crypto niche. Better and Coinbase said 67% of token holders are 45 or younger and 26% earn less than US $75,000 a year. They also pointed to Redfin data showing 12.7% of Gen Z and Millennial homebuyers have already sold tokenized assets to fund a down payment, versus 3.5% of Gen X and 0.5% of Baby Boomers.
Digital assets are now included in standard mortgage structure, not just a trading or investment account. Token holdings now help fund a conforming mortgage down payment without forcing a sale first. As this model grows, digital assets will look less like something borrowers need to liquidate and more like collateral lenders may be willing to work with.
Better and Coinbase also plan to expand eligible collateral over time to include tokenized equities, fixed income, and tokenized real estate assets. If that happens, the story will not stop at mortgages. It will continue to proliferate into which consumer lending products can absorb token backed collateral and under what terms.
Talking Point
If digital assets can now help fund a conforming mortgage, which standard lending products could be next to accept token backed collateral?
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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BitGo Adds USDCx And cBTC Custody On Canton
Mar 25, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Digital Assets And Tokenization
Custody And Settlement Infrastructure Deepen On Institutional Tokenization Rails
On March 25, 2026, BitGo added qualified custody support for USDCx and cBTC on the Canton Network. This expands its role on Canton beyond Canton Coin and into CIP-56 assets, the token format Canton uses for regulated financial markets.
The CIP-56 token standard supports private transactions, built in KYC and AML controls, delivery versus payment settlement, and final settlement within seconds. Those features give institutions the controls they need to use tokenized assets in real collateral and settlement workflows.
Canton describes itself as a privacy enabled blockchain network for institutional assets, with about 600 validators live and more than 15 million monthly transactions using Canton Coin in their flows. That's why BitGo's expansion is interesting because it plugs additional assets into a network that's already being built for regulated financial activity, not retail token trading.
See: SEC Crypto Interpretation Resets Market Structure
USDCx already serves as the settlement currency for out of hours repo settlement and tokenized collateral workflows on Canton. It is issued through Circle’s xReserve framework. cBTC adds bitcoin backed liquidity to the same environment, giving firms another asset they can use across collateral and settlement activity. This isn't just broader token support. It makes the settlement layer more usable.
Qualified custody for Canton Coin launched in October 2025, and token support followed in less than six months. The work is no longer just about putting assets onchain. It is about building the custody, collateral, and settlement stack that institutions need around them.
Canton is also drawing in more institutional infrastructure, including tokenized money market fund infrastructure from Goldman Sachs and BNY. This BitGo move adds another piece to the same buildout. If tokenized finance is going to work at scale, firms need more than issuance. They need custody that institutions trust, settlement assets they can use, and compliant rails that hold up under real volume. That's where commercial value is starting to concentrate.
Talking Point
As tokenized markets add stablecoin settlement, bitcoin backed liquidity, and qualified custody, which firms become hardest to replace?
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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