Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Fintech Fridays Ep33: Indexing Consumer Loans and Financial Literacy with Phillip Postrehovsky
NCFA Canada | May 31, 2019
JOIN US ON A STORYTELLING JOURNEY EVERY FRIDAY.
Ep33-May 31: Evolution of Consumer Lending and Financial Literacy
HOST: Manseeb Khan, Fintech Friday's show host
GUEST: PHILLIP POSTREHOVSKY, SVP Marketing, Progressa (Linkedin)
BIO: Philipp is a product visionary, brand builder and an award-winning marketer who has been involved in the Vancouver tech scene for over 15 years. In 2013 he co-founded RentMoola, which continues to be one of North America's leading fintech companies with the mission to eliminate the rent cheque and modernize rent collection for the enterprise. Before that, he was a brand leader for Mogo Technologies and Wonga Canada and began his career at Electronic Arts. He is the founder of Grind For Kids, a program that raised over $1 million for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and sits on the Board of one of BC’s top independent schools.
About this episode:
On this week's episode of NCFA's Fintech Friday Podcast, our host Manseeb Khan sits down with Philipp Postrehovsky the SVP of Marketing at Progressa. They chat about the results of Progressa's Annual State of the Non-Prime Canadian Consumers Survey, incorporating behavioural characteristics into underwriting decisions, helping borrowers become more financially literate and improve their credit scores. Enjoy!
Subscribe and tune in each Friday to check out the latest movers and shakers in fintech.
Listen to more podcasts here: Season 1 | Season 2
Transcription of Interview
Intro: Welcome fintech Friday's a weekly podcast brought to you by the National Crowdfunding and Fintech Association of Canada and partners.Covering all things fintech block chain be AI and alternative finance.
Manseeb Khan: Hey everybody Manseeb Khan Thank you for tuning into another fantastical episode of The Fintech Friday podcast. Before we jump right into this week's episode huge shout out to the Toronto Raptors for winning the eastern championships as a kid that was born raised here in Toronto. This means the absolute world to me. And yeah having a Carter jersey from when I was a kid to now. This is this is incredible for the city; this is incredible Canada and hopefully we win the championships. If we do just a head up, I might take a break from the show so we might not even get an episode if we win which I think is understandable because it is going to be the first time in history that we've won. So that's just a heads up for everybody and a slight nod to my other Toronto raptor fans that are actually listening to the show. This week We're super excited to have Philipp Postrehovsky from Progressa. He's going to be the very first of many of reoccurring guests that we're going to be having. I'm not Phillip particularly but more so of the companies that we do have on the show. But hey maybe if maybe Phillip that would be really awesome. So, without any further ado Andrew episode 33 of the FinTech Friday podcast with Philipp Postrehovsky.
Manseeb Khan: Phillip thanks so much for sitting down with me today.
Philipp Postrehovsky: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Manseeb Khan: Yeah. Oh, for sure. So, Phillip our audience knows a little bit what Progressa is and honestly you guys are coming out with something. I think it's very exciting. You guys are coming up with Progressa's Annual State of the non-prime consumer study. Could you tell us a little bit about that and how you guys came when the formation of the study why you guys are coming out with this and yes give us a little bit of run out of this amazing study.
Philipp Postrehovsky: Sure yes. So, we wanted to get a sense of how Canadians are paycheck to paycheck Canadians are feeling about their personal finances and about the state of the economy and Canada as a whole. We surveyed our user base, or a subset of our user base and we got over 15 are close to fifteen hundred responses and got some great insights which I can share with you. But one of the big ones that I really jumped out at us is 76 percent up paycheck to paycheck Canadians lack confidence in their banks supporting them during financial difficulty. And that's really why Progressa exists so great to see that we are filling a need. Unfortunately, there is that need at least for filling it. So that was kind of a big one that came out in this and others that we can get into a little bit later.
Manseeb Khan: Yeah, I know that's very exciting. I mean the fact that now we have actually given me to study a little bit ahead of time so thank you for that. So, let's look at looking at some of the stats it's actually. It's shocking but not really surprising of how when it comes to lending, when it comes to you know Canadians being in debt and you know and dealing with their expenses like how kind of they're not using the bank is one of the options and they don't really know much about alternative lending. But even though they are using the banks they're not happily using the banks. That's probably one of the insights that I found. Huh interesting. I wonder how we can kind of you know help shift that.
Philipp Postrehovsky: Hmm. Yeah. So. So really the banks cater towards a customer that fits a certain credit risk right. Assume that customer falls out of that credit risk profile. The bank can't really help them. And that's why we develop the Progressa score which is Canada's leading alternative credit score where we're looking at other factors besides just their credit. To see if we are able to help that individual out. And that's why you know one of the top things that we help customers with is actually credit card debt. And the banks although I'm sure they would maybe want to help their customers out just aren't able to again because they're looking at that traditional credit score. So that's again where we come in and that's really allowed us to help customers when they need it the most.
Manseeb Khan: Yeah. No. I absolutely agree with you. Could you just rehash a little bit more of how Progressa rates their credit scores and what other factors they look at. Aside from just aside from the traditional credit score model.
Philipp Postrehovsky: Yeah. So, through the progressive score model we've really been able to develop an industry leading score that is looking at other behavioral characteristics. And we have an in-depth chat with that customer many times and we have a saying at Progressa that your story matters and it really does. And we understand that life happens. So, we are looking at this and other things that are going to influence your ability to pay back the loan. And that's why we're able to approve a lot of individuals that would not be normally approved for a loan. And we really do specialize in that debt consolidation space so we work with Canada's biggest collection agencies and we can get into that in a second. But really, I feel that the collection process is broken, and our study reiterates that to us because for example twenty nine percent of Canadians could handle not getting paid for three weeks by 33 percent could handle getting paid for two weeks so people are really living paycheck to paycheck. And if you do fall into a collection situation. The collection agency is there to collect money and they aren't in a position to lend you the money they expect you to pay it right there and then. But the reality is that Canadians do not have funds to just pay. So that's where we come in and we provide a lot of stress relief for those customers and we actually also provide a lot of credit relief I guess as soon as you get into the collection’s world. Your credit scores your traditional credit score gets negatively affected. So if you get a Progressa loan we're able to pay off that collections item which instantly starts to rehabilitate your credit score and you pass back we report to the credit bureaus and then you're on your way to building better credit which will hopefully then put you in a much better spot. Once you're done paying that loan off to us and hopefully get you on your way to a better financial future.
Manseeb Khan: Yeah which is incredible right. Because it's I mean expenses, debt and just like reviving your terrible credit score. It's an it's a tough enough challenge as is. You did briefly mention on how broken the collections I guess system currently is. Could you just talk a little bit more about that? I mean I'm not too familiar about it. I'm pretty sure many of the audience members aren't really familiar about it could just talk about how broken it is how and also how alternative financing and alternative lending can hopefully help create a new system or create a hybrid system that can help repair a lot of the inefficiencies that are currently in place.
Philipp Postrehovsky: Yeah. So, the collections industry is looking for what is called a settlement offer right. So that's something where you have agreed to pay the collection agency the amount that you've negotiated with them right. But the reality is if you don't have that money, you're not going to be able to pay it back. In our study we found that 24 percent of paycheck to paycheck Canadians. Would have no way to pay for an unplanned emergency and another 25 percent would have to turn to the friends or family. So, half of our respondents really have no they're not financially prepared for a difficult financial situation. So that being if you are in collections, we would deem that you're in a difficult financial situation. So, you have these collection agencies calling you repeatedly asking for money that you owe them or to somebody else and you really have no way of paying it. So that's what we see it being broken and that's where we come in right. So, we will work, or the agencies will work with us to pass on that customer and we'll evaluate their situation, and in many cases, we can offer them a loan, so we'll get off that debt and the collection calls stop. And then you have that consumer now and really grateful and that's actually one reason we have some of the industry leading NPS score. If you're not following of NPS its net promoter score. So, we have kind of customer satisfaction. The big banks are kind of in like that sub 10 range. And our average NPS score is in the 50 range which is considered pretty much world class and one of the reasons it's so high is it is again because we are providing debt or stress relief at you know at a really difficult financial time where you've had a collection calls coming up left, right and central potentially. And now we've come in there giving you that loan, paid off that debt and now you're dealing with us and you're paying back that loan on a monthly basis which before we came into the picture you just weren't able to do. We're giving the collection agency a tool that they need that the that the customer needs. So, it's a win win for everyone right.
Manseeb Khan: I mean it just speaks on like how we even started off the show right. You guys look at. More aspects other than just like the traditional collections agency of like Hey these are the 50 people that owe us money. You owe money. So, when I keep hassling you and keep harassing you until you pass our back our money and not. Unfortunately being as empathetic towards a lot of the people that do go in debt and you know the circumstance that that much put them in debt in the first place right the fact that you guys are taking that under consideration and taking that under review when it comes to paying off everyone's debt. I mean that in and of itself is very incredible. Yeah thanks.
Philipp Postrehovsky: And you know that all kind of boils down to why we called you know a good financial literacy you know kind of like knowing good financial habits. So we make sure that when a customer comes into our eco system you know that we remind them and we educate them on the payment process and on the credit score and the good things that are going to happen when they're paying that loan back on time and that we are in their court and we want them to succeed and they really appreciate that. So that's a big pillar for us as well as driving financial literacy. And hopefully that customer doesn't find themselves in that situation again in the future.
Manseeb Khan: Just like based on like all the amazing people that you've helped out. Could you talk a little bit more on I guess like give us your top five financial literacy tips they can kind of share with the audience.
Philipp Postrehovsky: I think the top five. I mean you definitely working with a budget is key. Another one is you know paying yourself first. So really putting money aside for a financial emergency or you know an unknown expense that's going to come up will hopefully prevent you from getting into a collection situation. I think you know in general savings when we say pay yourself first you make sure that that money is going into another bank account, so you aren't even really tempted to ever touch that money. We have a blog, blog. progressa dot com where we share personal finance tips on a weekly basis. So those are just some of them but there's a lot of different strategies that you can do really. Another one is really your credit score right. Your credit score is going to enable you to do a lot of good things. It can actually even affect employment right the ability to get a job is affected by your credit score. So really monitoring your credit score and understanding how you can negatively impact and positively impact it is really important. But again, I really suggest I would encourage individuals that are looking for a simple but effective financial tip to go to our blog and check them out there.
Manseeb Khan: Awesome. Yeah. So, it's a blog dot progressa dot com, right? Yes, blog dot progressa dot com. Cool. How else can alternative lending help Canadians when it comes to their expenses and also debts. I mean like we briefly touched on it. So, I guess like could you just paint the picture of how alternative lending is, can become an alternative solution other than going to banks or going to like one of those fast cash fast loans places.
Philipp Postrehovsky: Yeah, I think for us you know we are also big proponents of open banking which really advocates for consumers owning their own financial information and not the banks. You know the bank's kind of hold your financial information close to heart. We use different secure technologies to leverage. And with permission an individual's banking data to you know assess their credit risk. But you know there is a movement towards open banking which really does support alternative lending in the end in FinTech in general is meant to be layered over top of in my opinion traditional banking and payment services. And really, it's immense to give the consumer more choices. Again, the banks provide a lot of individuals in Canada a product that works for them. But again because of the credit scoring I guess restrictions they operate in. They can't meet everyone's needs and that's where alternative lending can come in at. And other fintech solutions can come in to meet those needs that are simply not being met by large organizations that are meant to cater to a very specific consumer.
Manseeb Khan: No, I absolutely agree with you. I mean I've I share the same opinion when it comes to fintech and how fintech is actually there to kind of work together with the existing financial system that we currently have. And yeah no I definitely I definitely share the same rally call when it comes to that. So, I guess what you will be some of the key takeaways when it comes to the study and I guess. what is the next kind of studies that you guys are planning to hopefully roll out and that we can kind of be excited for? Yeah.
Philipp Postrehovsky: So, you mentioned that this our first annual study, so our plan is to actually ask the same set of questions a year from now. We may add some new ones in there but really, we want to start comparing our year to year how things are trending. So, we look forward to doing that and seeing you know how certain economic factors are influencing the average Canadian consumer. So, you can definitely expect that in the future seeing year to year comparisons. So that's the biggest one. And again, for us we're simply trying to we're simply there to provide a solution that Canadians really need, and they need it in a time that that you know they may feel helpless and we are there to help them. So, you can look forward to us continuing to help tens of thousands of Canadians from coast to coast.
Manseeb Khan: I'm super excited about that. Before I let you go there are a couple of well I think are interesting stats where I kind of hopefully you can kind of expand a little bit more on it and hopefully share with the audience of like you know how alternative financing can be a possible solution. Right like you might like you know a couple of couple ones that you mentioned was you know planning for an emergency expense right to actually having a rainy day fund and making sure that you know you have a sufficient amount of money we can kind of keep you afloat for a little bit just in case of an emergency. Scrolling through here there was an interesting one where a lot of people so there's a majority of people that are actually not putting money into their RRSP or the TFSA which I find pretty funny. I mean I'm unfortunately am one those people. I mean I always forget it's actually put money aside for both those funds. Yeah.
Philipp Postrehovsky: Yeah I. And honestly from personal experience the easiest best way to do it is set it and forget it right up set up auto withdrawal from your account for either RRSP or TFSA or just a savings account. You're saving for a vacation or something and just set it and forget it. It'll come out again that's all about paying yourself first and then check back in a few months and you'll be pleasantly surprised that there's money in that account that you may have even forgotten that you were saving for. And that is the easiest way to do it. Yeah you can nowadays with your phone use it from your phone. You can set up multiple savings goals for example. And yeah, you're good to go set it and forget it.
Manseeb Khan: Awesome so I'm going to throw the question to you. What excites you the most of when it comes to alternative lending. You know we've talked about helping to pay off your expenses, helping pay off your debts, minimizing the amount of collection calls that you get throughout the hour. So, Philipp what about alternative lending excites you the most?
Philipp Postrehovsky: Yeah. So we just released our first customer testimonial video that's available on our social channels and it really that video highlights to me the work that we're doing and what gets me in them but what gets me the most excited is that we are making a real difference through alternatives lending in people's lives right. So, these individuals really can at times, feel so helpless or very stressed and we are there I guess their savior. In some cases. And we get a lot of really positive feedback through our NPS survey. And you know over and over again you'll hear that people really appreciated the fact that you know we gave them a chance and they're just really grateful. And when you hear how appreciative people you are understand how important alternative lending is and that the work that we're doing really is making a difference. And you know just reminds me again how important Fintech is for the greater good of Canada and the world.
Manseeb Khan: No, I absolutely agree with you. Thank you. Thank you so much for all the amazing work that you guys are doing a Progressa. And you know and the amazing work that you guys are going to be doing in the future. What will be the best way to either reach out to you personally if they have any questions or places that they can kind of get to study.
Philipp Postrehovsky: you can follow us on Twitter Progressa Canada, or you can follow me on Twitter Philpostro. You can connect LinkedIn and follow Progressa on LinkedIn. Although social channels we monitor, and we're engaged with on a regular basis. So, feel free to connect and reach out if you've any questions and I'll look forward to answering any questions that do come out.
Manseeb Khan: Perfect. Philip thank you so much for sitting down with me today and I'm super excited to talk to a year from now and see what changes we have in the study.
Philipp Postrehovsky: You're welcome and Go Raptors Go.
Manseeb Khan: Go Raptors go.
Outro : you've been listening to fintech Fridays brought to you by NCFA and partners. Tune in weekly for the latest fintech Friday podcast by subscribing to this channel. The National crowdfunding and FinTech Association of Canada is a non-profit actively engaged with social and investment fintech sectors around the globe and provide education research industry stewardship services and networking opportunities to thousands of members and subscribers. For more information please visit and see if a Canada dot org. Oh yea.
End of Podcast
Subscribe and Listen to more Fintech Fridays podcasts here
Join NCFA's weekly Podcast series 'FINTECH FRIDAYS' where we sit down with the incredible people in the Fintech community and talk about leading fintech products innovations developments and challenges!
Interested in getting involved as a partner or participant? info@ncfacanada.org
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
Aug 29, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Whisperer | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Competition And Market Structure, Regulation And Policy, Risk Compliance And Regtech, Lending Consumer Credit And BNPL, Cross Border Payments And FX, Digital Banking And BaaS, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement 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, 2026, April 18-24, 2026, April 25-May 1, 2026, May 2-8, 2026, May ...
September 4, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Digital Identity And Trust, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Regulation And Policy Alternative Naming Systems, DNS Control and a September 21 Deadline On August 10, 2026, ICANN opened a consultation on alternative naming systems that could affect how blockchain based and other naming systems work alongside the global Domain Name System. Comments are open until September 21, 2026 at 23:59 UTC. ICANN is the nonprofit organization that coordinates the global Domain Name System, including the rules for top level domains such as .com, .org and newer gTLDs. The consultation matters most to domain registries, Web3 naming providers, digital identity firms, wallet and payment companies, cybersecurity specialists and brands that could be affected if the same name appears across multiple naming systems. ICANN is dealing with a problem that did not exist when the DNS was designed. Alternative naming systems can create names outside the global DNS, while registry operators and potential applicants in the 2026 New gTLD Program are now interested in using some of the same top level strings in both systems. If that happens, users need confidence that the same name is controlled by the same party wherever they encounter it ...
September 4, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Lending Consumer Credit And BNPL, Digital Assets, Embedded Finance Revolving Crypto Credit With 60% LTV and Partial Liquidation On September 3, 2026, Toronto-based APX Lending launched a five-year crypto-backed line of credit that lets eligible borrowers pledge Bitcoin, Ethereum or both, draw funds, repay them and borrow again. APX says the facility supports borrowing up to 60% loan to value, with annual rates from 10.49% to 11.99% depending on the outstanding balance. Interest applies only to money actually borrowed, with no charge on unused capacity. APX also says there are no origination, prepayment or liquidation fees. The biggest change from APX's existing fixed-term loans is that borrowers can use the credit line more than once. They can keep approved collateral in place, draw funds when needed, repay them and borrow again. Three Takeaways 1. Bitcoin and Ethereum Can Support Repeat Borrowing APX gives the example of C$200,000 of Bitcoin and C$100,000 of Ethereum supporting up to C$180,000 of borrowing at the maximum 60% LTV. Available credit changes with the value of the collateral, so a falling crypto market can reduce borrowing capacity quickly. The basic idea will be familiar to anyone who ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Competition And Market Structure, Banking And Lending, Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Open Banking Open Finance And Data Sharing A Huge Non Bank Base Meets Faster Challenger Growth And Wider Market Access On September 3, 2026, Bank of Canada staff released new non bank finance data showing that Canada’s non bank financial sector held C$14.0 trillion in assets at the end of 2024, equal to 60.9% of the financial system. The Bank's broad definition includes pension funds, insurers, investment funds, financial auxiliaries and other intermediaries. Much of the 2024 increase also came from stronger market valuations. The headline number is only part of the story. Faster growth is appearing in narrower bank like activities, online brokerage and specialty finance, while commercial banks still retain enormous asset and distribution advantages. Canada already had a huge financial system outside deposit taking banks. What's changing is how customers reach it, where credit can originate and how many firms can compete for data, payments, investing and banking services. C$14.0T Non bank assets 60.9% Share of financial system assets 34.5% Commercial bank share +12.1% Narrow NBFI assets +35.4% Non bank broker dealers 95% Broker dealer assets still ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Competition And Market Structure, Fintech And Innovation Nvidia Buys Hugging Face As Open Source AI Faces A New Owner On September 3, 2026, Nvidia announced a definitive agreement to acquire Hugging Face for US$12.9303 billion. The deal would put one of the biggest platforms for open source and open weight AI alongside the company that already dominates much of the market for AI computing. The price includes about US$11.9 billion for Hugging Face stockholders and up to US$1 billion in equity awards for employees joining Nvidia. The transaction hasn't closed. Nvidia says it expects completion in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Nvidia is making a very public promise with the deal. Hugging Face will remain open. Developers will still be able to choose their models, clouds, inference providers and computing platforms. Nvidia hardware will not be required. That promise goes directly to the tension. Hugging Face became valuable because developers, startups, researchers and rival chip companies could all build there. Nvidia can make that ecosystem stronger. Ownership can also make some of those same users wonder whether an open source ...
Sep 3, 2026 Some buy now, pay later activity reaches Canadian credit files. Most routine instalment plans currently do not. That is the short answer, and the qualifications matter more than the answer does. Whether a buy now, pay later arrangement appears on a credit file in Canada depends on the provider, on which credit bureau is involved, on whether a payment was missed, and on the month in which the question is asked. Payments made on time and payments missed follow different routes. Two people financing identical purchases through different providers may find entirely different records. What follows sets out what is reported, by whom, to which bureau, and with what effect on a score, then explains why the answer is this unsatisfying. The position described reflects Canadian reporting as of September 2026, and it is moving. What buy now, pay later actually is The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada describes buy now, pay later plans as arrangements that finance a purchase with credit. Its research characterises the category as covering a wide range of credit arrangements and as generally a type of consumer credit, comparable to instalment lending. That framing is the reason the credit-file question arises at ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Digital Banking And BaaS, Regulation And Policy, Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement Revolut Bank US, 2027 Launch Plans and U.S. Banking Products On September 3, 2026, Revolut received conditional U.S. bank approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency form Revolut Bank US, N.A., a federally chartered national bank headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. Revolut says it is still working through FDIC, Federal Reserve and final OCC approvals and remains on track for a 2027 launch. U.S. customers cannot open accounts with Revolut Bank US yet. Revolut already serves U.S. customers, but the regulated banking are with other institutions. Lead Bank supports Revolut's prepaid card accounts and banking services, while Savings Vault funds are held at Cross River Bank. Revolut controls the app and customer experience, but those partner banks hold deposits and perform key regulated functions. Revolut says the proposed bank would offer loans, credit cards and FDIC insured deposits, alongside access to stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. Its charter application also describes deposits, savings, business credit, payments, remittances and foreign exchange. Some investment and digital asset services could still sit with affiliates or outside providers rather than inside the bank itself. Revolut ...
Sep 3, 2026 Anyone who has onboarded a client at a fintech startup knows the bottleneck. The product works, the API integration is done, and then someone emails a photo of a passport taken at an angle in bad light, with half the machine-readable zone cut off. Multiply that by fifty applicants a week and your compliance queue turns into a photo-editing job. Small lenders, brokerages and crypto exchanges all hit the same wall. Identity verification and record-keeping are document-heavy by law, and the documents arrive in whatever format the customer's phone produced. That is the gap a mobile scanner fills. OKEN, listed on the Play Store under the longer name OKEN - camscanner, pdf scanner and published under the name CAMBYTE Pte. Ltd., is a Productivity app that turns a phone camera into a document scanner with edge detection, OCR text recognition, and export to PDF, JPG, Word or TXT. It also reads QR codes, which matters more than it sounds in a payments context. What OKEN Does With a Photographed Document The core loop is straightforward. Point the camera at a page, let the app find the borders, and it flattens the perspective into something that looks like ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Market Interest | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Wealth Investing And Trading Payward Revenue Growth, IPO Delay and Its US$20B Valuation Kraken parent Payward has reportedly delayed its U.S. IPO again, this time to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest. The company confidentially filed a draft registration statement in November 2025, then put the listing on hold in March as crypto prices, trading volumes and valuations weakened. Payward hasn't confirmed the new 2027 timing, so it remains a reported window rather than a scheduled IPO date. The delay comes at an interesting point for the business. Payward reported US$508 million in Q2 adjusted revenue, up 17% year over year. Funded accounts rose 42% to 6.6 million, while assets on the platform were US$40 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was much thinner at US$23 million, and total platform transaction volume fell 18% to US$310 billion as crypto spot trading cooled. Those numbers give Payward a pretty clear reason to wait. Revenue and customers are growing, but the company is still proving how much earnings it can generate when trading activity softens. Going public now would put that question in front of ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Trade And Tariffs, Canadian Economy, Cross Border Finance, Public Policy Record Non U.S. Exports Meet Retaliation, Stalled Talks And A New Sovereignty Fight On September 3, 2026, Canada's July trade report put two stories beside each other. Exports to the United States fell 6.6%, while exports to countries outside the U.S. rose 7.4% to a record C$25.6 billion. Canada's merchandise trade surplus with the world narrowed from C$4.2 billion in June to C$769 million. Its surplus with the United States fell from C$10.3 billion to C$5.9 billion. Those numbers now sit inside a much rougher political relationship. On August 22, the United States imposed a 50% tariff on roughly US$20 billion of Canadian exports, while the Government of Canada values the affected goods at C$27.6 billion. Canada has rejected the terms on offer and announced matching counter tariffs on C$27.6 billion of U.S. imports, scheduled to take effect on September 8. Canada is still deeply tied to the U.S. economy, but the reaction is no longer confined to government. Buy Canadian sentiment has returned. Companies are reviewing suppliers and customers. Travel choices have changed. More Canadian businesses are looking beyond the U.S ...
Aug 29, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Whisperer | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Competition And Market Structure, Regulation And Policy, Risk Compliance And Regtech, Lending Consumer Credit And BNPL, Cross Border Payments And FX, Digital Banking And BaaS, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement 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, 2026, April 18-24, 2026, April 25-May 1, 2026, May 2-8, 2026, May ...
September 4, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Digital Identity And Trust, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Regulation And Policy Alternative Naming Systems, DNS Control and a September 21 Deadline On August 10, 2026, ICANN opened a consultation on alternative naming systems that could affect how blockchain based and other naming systems work alongside the global Domain Name System. Comments are open until September 21, 2026 at 23:59 UTC. ICANN is the nonprofit organization that coordinates the global Domain Name System, including the rules for top level domains such as .com, .org and newer gTLDs. The consultation matters most to domain registries, Web3 naming providers, digital identity firms, wallet and payment companies, cybersecurity specialists and brands that could be affected if the same name appears across multiple naming systems. ICANN is dealing with a problem that did not exist when the DNS was designed. Alternative naming systems can create names outside the global DNS, while registry operators and potential applicants in the 2026 New gTLD Program are now interested in using some of the same top level strings in both systems. If that happens, users need confidence that the same name is controlled by the same party wherever they encounter it ...
September 4, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Lending Consumer Credit And BNPL, Digital Assets, Embedded Finance Revolving Crypto Credit With 60% LTV and Partial Liquidation On September 3, 2026, Toronto-based APX Lending launched a five-year crypto-backed line of credit that lets eligible borrowers pledge Bitcoin, Ethereum or both, draw funds, repay them and borrow again. APX says the facility supports borrowing up to 60% loan to value, with annual rates from 10.49% to 11.99% depending on the outstanding balance. Interest applies only to money actually borrowed, with no charge on unused capacity. APX also says there are no origination, prepayment or liquidation fees. The biggest change from APX's existing fixed-term loans is that borrowers can use the credit line more than once. They can keep approved collateral in place, draw funds when needed, repay them and borrow again. Three Takeaways 1. Bitcoin and Ethereum Can Support Repeat Borrowing APX gives the example of C$200,000 of Bitcoin and C$100,000 of Ethereum supporting up to C$180,000 of borrowing at the maximum 60% LTV. Available credit changes with the value of the collateral, so a falling crypto market can reduce borrowing capacity quickly. The basic idea will be familiar to anyone who ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Competition And Market Structure, Banking And Lending, Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Open Banking Open Finance And Data Sharing A Huge Non Bank Base Meets Faster Challenger Growth And Wider Market Access On September 3, 2026, Bank of Canada staff released new non bank finance data showing that Canada’s non bank financial sector held C$14.0 trillion in assets at the end of 2024, equal to 60.9% of the financial system. The Bank's broad definition includes pension funds, insurers, investment funds, financial auxiliaries and other intermediaries. Much of the 2024 increase also came from stronger market valuations. The headline number is only part of the story. Faster growth is appearing in narrower bank like activities, online brokerage and specialty finance, while commercial banks still retain enormous asset and distribution advantages. Canada already had a huge financial system outside deposit taking banks. What's changing is how customers reach it, where credit can originate and how many firms can compete for data, payments, investing and banking services. C$14.0T Non bank assets 60.9% Share of financial system assets 34.5% Commercial bank share +12.1% Narrow NBFI assets +35.4% Non bank broker dealers 95% Broker dealer assets still ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Competition And Market Structure, Fintech And Innovation Nvidia Buys Hugging Face As Open Source AI Faces A New Owner On September 3, 2026, Nvidia announced a definitive agreement to acquire Hugging Face for US$12.9303 billion. The deal would put one of the biggest platforms for open source and open weight AI alongside the company that already dominates much of the market for AI computing. The price includes about US$11.9 billion for Hugging Face stockholders and up to US$1 billion in equity awards for employees joining Nvidia. The transaction hasn't closed. Nvidia says it expects completion in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Nvidia is making a very public promise with the deal. Hugging Face will remain open. Developers will still be able to choose their models, clouds, inference providers and computing platforms. Nvidia hardware will not be required. That promise goes directly to the tension. Hugging Face became valuable because developers, startups, researchers and rival chip companies could all build there. Nvidia can make that ecosystem stronger. Ownership can also make some of those same users wonder whether an open source ...
Sep 3, 2026 Some buy now, pay later activity reaches Canadian credit files. Most routine instalment plans currently do not. That is the short answer, and the qualifications matter more than the answer does. Whether a buy now, pay later arrangement appears on a credit file in Canada depends on the provider, on which credit bureau is involved, on whether a payment was missed, and on the month in which the question is asked. Payments made on time and payments missed follow different routes. Two people financing identical purchases through different providers may find entirely different records. What follows sets out what is reported, by whom, to which bureau, and with what effect on a score, then explains why the answer is this unsatisfying. The position described reflects Canadian reporting as of September 2026, and it is moving. What buy now, pay later actually is The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada describes buy now, pay later plans as arrangements that finance a purchase with credit. Its research characterises the category as covering a wide range of credit arrangements and as generally a type of consumer credit, comparable to instalment lending. That framing is the reason the credit-file question arises at ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Digital Banking And BaaS, Regulation And Policy, Payments Infrastructure And Money Movement Revolut Bank US, 2027 Launch Plans and U.S. Banking Products On September 3, 2026, Revolut received conditional U.S. bank approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency form Revolut Bank US, N.A., a federally chartered national bank headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. Revolut says it is still working through FDIC, Federal Reserve and final OCC approvals and remains on track for a 2027 launch. U.S. customers cannot open accounts with Revolut Bank US yet. Revolut already serves U.S. customers, but the regulated banking are with other institutions. Lead Bank supports Revolut's prepaid card accounts and banking services, while Savings Vault funds are held at Cross River Bank. Revolut controls the app and customer experience, but those partner banks hold deposits and perform key regulated functions. Revolut says the proposed bank would offer loans, credit cards and FDIC insured deposits, alongside access to stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. Its charter application also describes deposits, savings, business credit, payments, remittances and foreign exchange. Some investment and digital asset services could still sit with affiliates or outside providers rather than inside the bank itself. Revolut ...
Sep 3, 2026 Anyone who has onboarded a client at a fintech startup knows the bottleneck. The product works, the API integration is done, and then someone emails a photo of a passport taken at an angle in bad light, with half the machine-readable zone cut off. Multiply that by fifty applicants a week and your compliance queue turns into a photo-editing job. Small lenders, brokerages and crypto exchanges all hit the same wall. Identity verification and record-keeping are document-heavy by law, and the documents arrive in whatever format the customer's phone produced. That is the gap a mobile scanner fills. OKEN, listed on the Play Store under the longer name OKEN - camscanner, pdf scanner and published under the name CAMBYTE Pte. Ltd., is a Productivity app that turns a phone camera into a document scanner with edge detection, OCR text recognition, and export to PDF, JPG, Word or TXT. It also reads QR codes, which matters more than it sounds in a payments context. What OKEN Does With a Photographed Document The core loop is straightforward. Point the camera at a page, let the app find the borders, and it flattens the perspective into something that looks like ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Market Interest | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Wealth Investing And Trading Payward Revenue Growth, IPO Delay and Its US$20B Valuation Kraken parent Payward has reportedly delayed its U.S. IPO again, this time to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest. The company confidentially filed a draft registration statement in November 2025, then put the listing on hold in March as crypto prices, trading volumes and valuations weakened. Payward hasn't confirmed the new 2027 timing, so it remains a reported window rather than a scheduled IPO date. The delay comes at an interesting point for the business. Payward reported US$508 million in Q2 adjusted revenue, up 17% year over year. Funded accounts rose 42% to 6.6 million, while assets on the platform were US$40 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was much thinner at US$23 million, and total platform transaction volume fell 18% to US$310 billion as crypto spot trading cooled. Those numbers give Payward a pretty clear reason to wait. Revenue and customers are growing, but the company is still proving how much earnings it can generate when trading activity softens. Going public now would put that question in front of ...
September 3, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Trade And Tariffs, Canadian Economy, Cross Border Finance, Public Policy Record Non U.S. Exports Meet Retaliation, Stalled Talks And A New Sovereignty Fight On September 3, 2026, Canada's July trade report put two stories beside each other. Exports to the United States fell 6.6%, while exports to countries outside the U.S. rose 7.4% to a record C$25.6 billion. Canada's merchandise trade surplus with the world narrowed from C$4.2 billion in June to C$769 million. Its surplus with the United States fell from C$10.3 billion to C$5.9 billion. Those numbers now sit inside a much rougher political relationship. On August 22, the United States imposed a 50% tariff on roughly US$20 billion of Canadian exports, while the Government of Canada values the affected goods at C$27.6 billion. Canada has rejected the terms on offer and announced matching counter tariffs on C$27.6 billion of U.S. imports, scheduled to take effect on September 8. Canada is still deeply tied to the U.S. economy, but the reaction is no longer confined to government. Buy Canadian sentiment has returned. Companies are reviewing suppliers and customers. Travel choices have changed. More Canadian businesses are looking beyond the U.S ...
Leave a Reply