Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Fintech Frenzy: Hype or Reality? A Closer Look at 6 Key Sectors
Fortune | Matt Harris | Aug 8, 2018
Matt Harris is a managing director at Bain Capital Ventures. He is consistently ranked as one of the top investors in fintech, having participated in the space since 2000.
I’ve been proven wrong once again.
For eight years running, I’ve predicted that fintech investment is going to plateau. Based on the start of 2018, it hasn’t yet. In fact, we saw more than $5.4 billion invested in fintech during the first quarter of the year, with no signs of slowing momentum. For perspective, fintech investment for all of 2014 was just under $4 billion, so that’s “5x” growth in four years. In 2001, per data from Venture Scanner, it was something like $300 million.
With that said, this whole “fintech” thing is kind of a charade. As I shared with attendees last month during our annual Fintech CEO Summit, co-hosted together with Nyca Partners, the CEOs in our portfolios don’t actually run “fintech businesses.” They run a payments business or a lending business, or they build investing technologies, or they sell to banks or insurance or real estate companies.
Regardless of what VCs tell limited partners, or how media cover the industry, these businesses don’t necessarily have much to do with each other (besides the obvious of moving money around).
So while the investment numbers are up in aggregate, each sub-sector has a very different story. And it’s worth diving in more deeply to understand what’s really going on.
Wealth/Investing: Race to the bank
Wealth tech companies get a steady 10% of fintech investment year after year. There’s a durable view that they show real opportunity for disruption. One of the more interesting trends right now is that all the wealth and investment companies that have achieved scale—like SoFi, Acorns, and Wealthfront (another disclosure: my team has backed Acorns)—are doing the same thing: They’re adding a checking account. You could paint with a broad brush and say they are all trying to become banks. Not necessarily licensed banks, but rather, leveraging third parties and new technologies to try to become a consumer’s primary financial partner.
See: Lifehacks for When a Robot Wants Your Job
This is really fascinating to me and raises a key question for our industry, and our society: Will consumers bail on traditional banks? Will they go to their employer with a new direct deposit authorization form and say “send my money to Betterment, to Acorns, to SoFi”? This is truly a new phenomenon. If it works, there’s a whole new era of fintech coming, where the banks go from the “Empire Strikes Back” phase that they’re in right now—and they start to worry again. It doesn’t mean wealth tech is toast if it doesn’t work, but it’s striking that all these companies had the same ideas at the same time.
Venture investment: $1.2 billion in 2017 (Source: CB Insights)
Startup energy: Steady as she goes
Insurance: Fast growth leads to full stack
Insurance startups are really at a pivot right now. Companies like Oscar or ZhongAn have scaled from nothing to billions a year in funding, and in the process, they’ve decided to be full stack. Historically, insurance startups Insureon and Zenefits were simply brokers or managing general agents, but increasingly there’s a take that startups need to be(come) carriers. I certainly understand that instinct—if you don’t control the product, someone else controls the capital. So, I get it. But return on equity for carriers tends to be around 9%. It doesn’t make sense for a VC to invest in a carrier. Not at all.
Moving forward, the insurance tech players need to figure this out. It will be the difference between insurance getting really transformed or having a bunch of brokers with fancy apps. And that second future is not going to create a lot of equity value.
Venture investment: $1.4 billion in 2017 (Source: CB Insights)
Startup energy: Awkward teenage years
Real Estate: Disruption in full effect
Real estate and crypto are the two areas where we see the most growth. In real estate, five of the venture world’s 10 most recent unicorns—Compass, OpenDoor, WeWork, Airbnb and UCommune—are real estate companies, whether you think of them that way or not. OpenDoor, for instance, invented a true “prop” brokerage, where they don’t broker a sale for 6%, but instead buy the property, find another buyer and make money on the spread. Zillow now says they’re doing the same thing, and there have been a bunch of fast followers. This incredibly stodgy industry—which hasn’t changed in a hundred years—is getting re-made.
See: Real estate crowdfunding in Canada: portal insights for 2017/18
Venture investment: $1.2 billion in 2017 (Source: PitchBook)
Startup energy: First-movers moving fast
Cryptocurrency/Blockchain: Time to get serious
What can we say about crypto? Last year at our Fintech CEO Summit, we talked about how people were going to go to jail for initial coin offerings (ICOs). No one has gone to jail yet, but it’s tricky. ICO volume is still frothy, with a peak of $4.1 billion raised in March but otherwise running at roughly $1.5 billion a month. Plus, the noise out of government is getting louder and clearer that this is not some sort of safe harbor.
Beyond ICOs, we think about the crypto space in three parts: the crypto investing ecosystem, enterprise blockchain, and distributed applications.
For the first, a key question is: Will crypto be an asset class? Provisionally, I believe the answer is “yes.” The investing ecosystem is now maturing nicely, and several pioneers like Basis and Compound (last disclosure: both are portfolio companies), are filling in key elements of market structure, assuming people want to trade crypto at scale more in the future.
Regarding enterprise blockchain, is it actually a standalone business? The market is thriving if you count press releases, but not if you look for revenue outside of proof-of-concept. We provisionally said “no” to this question in the early days, but we have great entrepreneurs working on it—and I’m sure they’ll prove us wrong.
See: ‘This Is Not a Passing Fad’: CFA Exam Adds Crypto, Blockchain Topics
Finally, distributed applications are the big prize. It’s clearly early days, but this is where the talent is heading. Will the Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon Web Services of the future simply be open source protocols powered by tokens that change the way we store our files, book our houses, book our travel, and manage our transportation? I don’t know when, but I believe we’ll get there. Someday.
Venture investment: $716 million in 2017 (Source: CB Insights)
Startup energy: Wild, wild west (and east and north and south)
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada non-profit actively engaged with cryptocurrency, blockchain, crowdfunding, alternative finance, fintech, P2P, ICO, STO, and online investing stakeholders globally. NCFA Canada provides education, research, industry stewardship, services, and networking opportunities to thousands of members and subscribers and works closely with industry, government, academia, community and eco-system partners and affiliates to create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding and fintech industry. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: ncfacanada.org
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Aug 28, 2026 Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way individual investors interact with financial markets. Tasks that once required hours of reading reports, comparing charts, or building spreadsheets can now be compressed into a few prompts or clicks. Modern AI investing tools can summarize market news, screen thousands of securities, identify unusual price movements, compare financial metrics, analyze sentiment, and even help investors test trading ideas. That convenience is valuable. But it also creates a new problem: when sophisticated analysis appears instantly on a screen, it is easy to confuse speed with reliability. For investors, the real opportunity is therefore not simply finding the most advanced AI. It is learning where AI adds value, where it can fail, and which decisions should always remain subject to independent due diligence. What Are AI Investing Tools? The term covers a surprisingly broad range of financial technologies. Some tools use machine learning to identify patterns in historical market data. Others apply natural language processing to earnings reports, central-bank announcements, news stories, or social-media discussions. Generative AI assistants can explain financial concepts, summarize research, compare investment ideas, or help users create screening criteria. In practice, retail investors are likely to encounter AI across ...
Aug 22, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Whisperer | Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Cross Border Payments And FX, Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement, Cybersecurity Fraud And Financial Crime, Artificial Intelligence And Data, Lending Consumer Credit And BNPL, Treasury Liquidity And Cash Management, Sustainable Finance ESG And Financial Inclusion, Digital Banking And BaaS, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Regulation And Policy, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization 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, March 21-27, 2026, March 28-April 3, 2026, April 4-10, 2026, April 11-17, ...
August 28, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Regulation And Policy, Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Risk Compliance And Regtech CIRO Dealers Cannot Offer Sports And Entertainment Contracts On August 27, 2026, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) issued new guidance on sports and entertainment event contracts. The CSA says those contracts belong outside securities and derivatives regulation, and CIRO will not approve dealer members to trade them. The decision closes the securities-dealer route without banning every sports prediction market category under every Canadian law. Gaming and other applicable rules can still determine what is permitted elsewhere, but Canadian investment dealers now know sports and entertainment will not join the event contracts they can distribute through CIRO. CIRO currently allows two investment dealers, Wealthsimple Investments Inc. and Interactive Brokers Canada Inc., to facilitate a limited set of contracts tied to economic forecasts, environmental outcomes and financial indicators. Permitted contracts generally need at least 30 days to maturity, clients cannot use leverage, and elections, referendums, political nominations and other political events remain prohibited. Without Sports, Canada Has to Prove Demand Elsewhere In the U.S., sports category helped prediction markets reach a much larger ...
August 28, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Open Banking Open Finance And Data Sharing, Digital Identity And Trust, Risk Compliance And Regtech, Cybersecurity And Fraud Five Privacy Changes Could Affect Access, Consent And Fintech Costs On August 26, 2026, Canada’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) called for five changes to Canada’s proposed Consumer-Driven Banking Regulations including what financial data can be shared, what firms must prove before accreditation, when public data can be reused without consent, how security keeps pace with new threats, and how the Bank of Canada and Privacy Commissioner coordinate oversight. The submission arrived on the last day of the government's 60-day consultation, which closed August 26. Finance Canada now has to decide which recommendations make it into the final regulations before Canada's open banking system starts moving from rulemaking into accreditation and implementation. The Commissioner supports consumer-directed data sharing, multi-factor authentication and mandatory breach reporting to the Bank of Canada. The five requested changes go further and could affect compliance costs, product design, consumer trust and which fintechs can afford to participate. 1. OPC Wants Canada to Define Exactly What Data Can Be Shared The proposed regulations cover identity information, account identifiers, fees and terms, ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Regulation And Policy, Artificial Intelligence And Data, Risk Compliance And Regtech, Competition And Market Structure Time limits, age checks and feed controls for teen users On August 26, 2026, U.S. attorneys general announced a settlement with Meta worth up to US$17.1 billion over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were designed to keep children and teens engaged despite risks to their health and well-being. If the court approves the agreement, Meta also has to limit how long minors can use its apps, restrict overnight access and school-hour notifications, strengthen age checks and give families more control over what young users see. Meta isn't required to admit it did anything wrong under the settlement. It does expect to record an approximately US$10 billion legal expense in Q3 2026. Governments aren't only extracting billions from Meta. They're putting enforceable limits on features that help determine how often young people open Facebook and Instagram, how long they stay and what keeps them scrolling. Meta Has to Change How It Competes for Teen Attention Users under 18 will start with a combined two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram. Parents can approve more time, but teens can't simply ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Banking And Credit, Competition And Market Structure Shared infrastructure targets tokenized deposits and payments On August 25, 2026, 39 U.S. state bankers associations formed BankChain Alliance to build a shared blockchain network for financial institutions. The planned infrastructure would support smart payment tools, tokenized deposits, stablecoins and automated settlement, with participating banks able to take an ownership role. Together, the associations represent thousands of financial institutions serving millions of consumers, businesses and communities. BankChain is selecting a technology partner and targeting a 2027 launch. It says the network will interoperate with other networks and that banks across the country will be invited to take ownership. The technology platform, ownership terms for individual banks, operating rules and settlement design haven’t been disclosed, so BankChain remains infrastructure under development rather than a live payment rail. Smaller Banks Could Share the Cost of Tokenized Money Building tokenized payment infrastructure involves more than choosing a blockchain. Banks need core system integration, compliance controls, security, operating rules and connections to other financial networks. Those costs are easier for a large institution to absorb than for a community ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Community Announcement | Fintech And Innovation, Artificial Intelligence And Data, Capital Markets And Funding Elevate 2026 Innovation AI Capital And Company Building Elevate is less than a month away! Checkout the latest Elevate 2026 agenda giving founders, investors and technology operators a closer look at the conversations coming to Toronto from September 22–24. For Canada's fintech community, the mix is worth watching. Elevate's 2026 programming spans fintech, artificial intelligence, capital, commercialization and other technologies competing for investment, customers and talent. NCFA is a Community Partner for this year's festival at Meridian Hall. Fintech Connects With AI And Commercialization Canadian fintech has a direct place in the program. Eva Wong, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Borrowell, is among the announced speakers, bringing experience from one of Canada's established consumer fintech companies to discussions about product, fintech and the development of Canada's digital finance market. The latest agenda announcement also highlights Mati Staniszewski, Co-Founder and CEO of ElevenLabs; Adam Collins, Chief Communications Officer at Reddit; and Jessica Chalk, Founder and CEO of myStoria. Those adjacent technology perspectives are relevant to financial innovators. AI is entering customer service, fraud detection, compliance, product development and internal operations, while ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Regulation And Policy, Risk Compliance And Regtech, Payments And Money Movement Nine Registration Violations, $0 Penalties And New PSP Obligations As of August 26, 2026, the Bank of Canada's RPAA enforcement decisions show nine published notices of violation involving payment service providers. Every listed notice cites section 23 of the Retail Payment Activities Act for performing retail payment activities without being registered. Every one also carries a $0 administrative monetary penalty. Operating without registration is classified as a very serious violation. A zero dollar penalty doesn't make the violation informal or erase it. The decisions remain public for five years, and violations are also reflected on provider registry entries. The transition period is over. Payment firms applying after September 8, 2025 must be registered before they begin regulated activity. A firm already operating without having applied is violating the Act. The requirement can also reach foreign providers serving Canadian users, so regulatory status in another country isn't a substitute for Canadian registration. For firms still assessing scope, the Bank of Canada PSP registration guide covers the payment functions, Canadian market activity and operating models that can bring a business under the regime. Nine ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Regulation And Policy, Risk Compliance And Regtech When Creators Can Influence The Market Outcome On August 19, 2026, CRSHMARKET promoted a wider vision for its livestream prediction market, where people can put money on events while a stream is still unfolding. Its campaign showed markets around dates, public interactions and creator content, while the live product currently remains concentrated in video games such as Rocket League and Among Us. The format is built around speed. Users enter dollar amounts on short yes-or-no outcomes and some markets can settle within minutes. When checked on August 26, CRSHMARKET on-chain volume showed about US$7.79 million in cumulative USDC entry volume across current and earlier contracts. DefiLlama says each entry is counted once and treasury seed liquidity is excluded. What happens if the product expands beyond esports into creator-led livestreams where the person on screen can affect what traders are betting on? Creator Markets Need Different Controls Prediction markets already have to manage insider information. Creator-led markets add another problem because someone close to the content may be able to influence the result itself. A market on whether a streamer gets ...
August 25, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Treasury Liquidity And Cash Management, Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement, Cross Border Payments And FX Open Banking And Real-Time Payments Raise The Stakes On August 25, 2026, Royal Bank of Canada created a RBC Global Transaction Banking business spanning Commercial Banking in Canada and the United States and RBC Capital Markets. Payments, cash and liquidity management, working capital, trade finance and foreign exchange will operate under shared leadership and one strategy. Most of the products already existed. RBC is changing how it organizes, develops and sells them. RBC Edge serves Canadian cash management clients and RBC Clear serves the U.S. market. The bank hasn't said the two platforms will become one system. When a business collects money, makes payments, holds cash, converts currencies and borrows through the same bank, that relationship can produce payment fees, operating deposits and more financing opportunities. RBC is trying to make more of those services work as one relationship across borders. Corporate Deposits Raise The Value Of The Relationship RBC explicitly links transaction banking to deposit growth. By the end of fiscal 2025, RBC Clear U.S. transaction banking had attracted US$23 billion in deposits from more than 180 ...
Aug 28, 2026 Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way individual investors interact with financial markets. Tasks that once required hours of reading reports, comparing charts, or building spreadsheets can now be compressed into a few prompts or clicks. Modern AI investing tools can summarize market news, screen thousands of securities, identify unusual price movements, compare financial metrics, analyze sentiment, and even help investors test trading ideas. That convenience is valuable. But it also creates a new problem: when sophisticated analysis appears instantly on a screen, it is easy to confuse speed with reliability. For investors, the real opportunity is therefore not simply finding the most advanced AI. It is learning where AI adds value, where it can fail, and which decisions should always remain subject to independent due diligence. What Are AI Investing Tools? The term covers a surprisingly broad range of financial technologies. Some tools use machine learning to identify patterns in historical market data. Others apply natural language processing to earnings reports, central-bank announcements, news stories, or social-media discussions. Generative AI assistants can explain financial concepts, summarize research, compare investment ideas, or help users create screening criteria. In practice, retail investors are likely to encounter AI across ...
Aug 22, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Whisperer | Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Cross Border Payments And FX, Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement, Cybersecurity Fraud And Financial Crime, Artificial Intelligence And Data, Lending Consumer Credit And BNPL, Treasury Liquidity And Cash Management, Sustainable Finance ESG And Financial Inclusion, Digital Banking And BaaS, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Regulation And Policy, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization 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, March 21-27, 2026, March 28-April 3, 2026, April 4-10, 2026, April 11-17, ...
August 28, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Regulation And Policy, Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Risk Compliance And Regtech CIRO Dealers Cannot Offer Sports And Entertainment Contracts On August 27, 2026, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) issued new guidance on sports and entertainment event contracts. The CSA says those contracts belong outside securities and derivatives regulation, and CIRO will not approve dealer members to trade them. The decision closes the securities-dealer route without banning every sports prediction market category under every Canadian law. Gaming and other applicable rules can still determine what is permitted elsewhere, but Canadian investment dealers now know sports and entertainment will not join the event contracts they can distribute through CIRO. CIRO currently allows two investment dealers, Wealthsimple Investments Inc. and Interactive Brokers Canada Inc., to facilitate a limited set of contracts tied to economic forecasts, environmental outcomes and financial indicators. Permitted contracts generally need at least 30 days to maturity, clients cannot use leverage, and elections, referendums, political nominations and other political events remain prohibited. Without Sports, Canada Has to Prove Demand Elsewhere In the U.S., sports category helped prediction markets reach a much larger ...
August 28, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Open Banking Open Finance And Data Sharing, Digital Identity And Trust, Risk Compliance And Regtech, Cybersecurity And Fraud Five Privacy Changes Could Affect Access, Consent And Fintech Costs On August 26, 2026, Canada’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) called for five changes to Canada’s proposed Consumer-Driven Banking Regulations including what financial data can be shared, what firms must prove before accreditation, when public data can be reused without consent, how security keeps pace with new threats, and how the Bank of Canada and Privacy Commissioner coordinate oversight. The submission arrived on the last day of the government's 60-day consultation, which closed August 26. Finance Canada now has to decide which recommendations make it into the final regulations before Canada's open banking system starts moving from rulemaking into accreditation and implementation. The Commissioner supports consumer-directed data sharing, multi-factor authentication and mandatory breach reporting to the Bank of Canada. The five requested changes go further and could affect compliance costs, product design, consumer trust and which fintechs can afford to participate. 1. OPC Wants Canada to Define Exactly What Data Can Be Shared The proposed regulations cover identity information, account identifiers, fees and terms, ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Regulation And Policy, Artificial Intelligence And Data, Risk Compliance And Regtech, Competition And Market Structure Time limits, age checks and feed controls for teen users On August 26, 2026, U.S. attorneys general announced a settlement with Meta worth up to US$17.1 billion over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were designed to keep children and teens engaged despite risks to their health and well-being. If the court approves the agreement, Meta also has to limit how long minors can use its apps, restrict overnight access and school-hour notifications, strengthen age checks and give families more control over what young users see. Meta isn't required to admit it did anything wrong under the settlement. It does expect to record an approximately US$10 billion legal expense in Q3 2026. Governments aren't only extracting billions from Meta. They're putting enforceable limits on features that help determine how often young people open Facebook and Instagram, how long they stay and what keeps them scrolling. Meta Has to Change How It Competes for Teen Attention Users under 18 will start with a combined two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram. Parents can approve more time, but teens can't simply ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Banking And Credit, Competition And Market Structure Shared infrastructure targets tokenized deposits and payments On August 25, 2026, 39 U.S. state bankers associations formed BankChain Alliance to build a shared blockchain network for financial institutions. The planned infrastructure would support smart payment tools, tokenized deposits, stablecoins and automated settlement, with participating banks able to take an ownership role. Together, the associations represent thousands of financial institutions serving millions of consumers, businesses and communities. BankChain is selecting a technology partner and targeting a 2027 launch. It says the network will interoperate with other networks and that banks across the country will be invited to take ownership. The technology platform, ownership terms for individual banks, operating rules and settlement design haven’t been disclosed, so BankChain remains infrastructure under development rather than a live payment rail. Smaller Banks Could Share the Cost of Tokenized Money Building tokenized payment infrastructure involves more than choosing a blockchain. Banks need core system integration, compliance controls, security, operating rules and connections to other financial networks. Those costs are easier for a large institution to absorb than for a community ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Community Announcement | Fintech And Innovation, Artificial Intelligence And Data, Capital Markets And Funding Elevate 2026 Innovation AI Capital And Company Building Elevate is less than a month away! Checkout the latest Elevate 2026 agenda giving founders, investors and technology operators a closer look at the conversations coming to Toronto from September 22–24. For Canada's fintech community, the mix is worth watching. Elevate's 2026 programming spans fintech, artificial intelligence, capital, commercialization and other technologies competing for investment, customers and talent. NCFA is a Community Partner for this year's festival at Meridian Hall. Fintech Connects With AI And Commercialization Canadian fintech has a direct place in the program. Eva Wong, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Borrowell, is among the announced speakers, bringing experience from one of Canada's established consumer fintech companies to discussions about product, fintech and the development of Canada's digital finance market. The latest agenda announcement also highlights Mati Staniszewski, Co-Founder and CEO of ElevenLabs; Adam Collins, Chief Communications Officer at Reddit; and Jessica Chalk, Founder and CEO of myStoria. Those adjacent technology perspectives are relevant to financial innovators. AI is entering customer service, fraud detection, compliance, product development and internal operations, while ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Regulation And Policy, Risk Compliance And Regtech, Payments And Money Movement Nine Registration Violations, $0 Penalties And New PSP Obligations As of August 26, 2026, the Bank of Canada's RPAA enforcement decisions show nine published notices of violation involving payment service providers. Every listed notice cites section 23 of the Retail Payment Activities Act for performing retail payment activities without being registered. Every one also carries a $0 administrative monetary penalty. Operating without registration is classified as a very serious violation. A zero dollar penalty doesn't make the violation informal or erase it. The decisions remain public for five years, and violations are also reflected on provider registry entries. The transition period is over. Payment firms applying after September 8, 2025 must be registered before they begin regulated activity. A firm already operating without having applied is violating the Act. The requirement can also reach foreign providers serving Canadian users, so regulatory status in another country isn't a substitute for Canadian registration. For firms still assessing scope, the Bank of Canada PSP registration guide covers the payment functions, Canadian market activity and operating models that can bring a business under the regime. Nine ...
August 26, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Regulation And Policy, Risk Compliance And Regtech When Creators Can Influence The Market Outcome On August 19, 2026, CRSHMARKET promoted a wider vision for its livestream prediction market, where people can put money on events while a stream is still unfolding. Its campaign showed markets around dates, public interactions and creator content, while the live product currently remains concentrated in video games such as Rocket League and Among Us. The format is built around speed. Users enter dollar amounts on short yes-or-no outcomes and some markets can settle within minutes. When checked on August 26, CRSHMARKET on-chain volume showed about US$7.79 million in cumulative USDC entry volume across current and earlier contracts. DefiLlama says each entry is counted once and treasury seed liquidity is excluded. What happens if the product expands beyond esports into creator-led livestreams where the person on screen can affect what traders are betting on? Creator Markets Need Different Controls Prediction markets already have to manage insider information. Creator-led markets add another problem because someone close to the content may be able to influence the result itself. A market on whether a streamer gets ...
August 25, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Treasury Liquidity And Cash Management, Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement, Cross Border Payments And FX Open Banking And Real-Time Payments Raise The Stakes On August 25, 2026, Royal Bank of Canada created a RBC Global Transaction Banking business spanning Commercial Banking in Canada and the United States and RBC Capital Markets. Payments, cash and liquidity management, working capital, trade finance and foreign exchange will operate under shared leadership and one strategy. Most of the products already existed. RBC is changing how it organizes, develops and sells them. RBC Edge serves Canadian cash management clients and RBC Clear serves the U.S. market. The bank hasn't said the two platforms will become one system. When a business collects money, makes payments, holds cash, converts currencies and borrows through the same bank, that relationship can produce payment fees, operating deposits and more financing opportunities. RBC is trying to make more of those services work as one relationship across borders. Corporate Deposits Raise The Value Of The Relationship RBC explicitly links transaction banking to deposit growth. By the end of fiscal 2025, RBC Clear U.S. transaction banking had attracted US$23 billion in deposits from more than 180 ...
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