Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
To Support Disruptive Technologies, Take Bigness Seriously
Denise Hearn | Myth of Capitalism | May 24, 2019
Shivaun Moeran and her husband Adam Raff founded one of the most promising startups you’ve never heard of. Adam managed Europe’s supercomputers used for weather forecasting and Shivaun managed software products for General Motors. While having a cigarette outside his office one day in 2006, Adam was struck with a brilliant idea. What if you could create an online search platform to find the best price for any product? It would aggregate specific information about category verticals, and nothing like it existed at the time.
They quit their jobs, hired a team, and began beta testing. Their site, Foundem.com ranked well on Google and they were receiving a steady flow of traffic. However, a few days after the official site launch, visitors to the site disappeared and never came back.
Upon investigation, they discovered that Google had updated their search ranking algorithm and had demoted the site, so it appeared on page 4 or even 170 of search results. Foundem had effectively disappeared from the internet – blacklisted. They suspected that they had been intentionally knocked out of the market and, after speaking with other entrepreneurs who had similar experiences, filed a complaint with the European Commission. Nearly 13 years later, Google was fined 2.4 billion euros for crushing competitors and steering users to its own product search sites. This was the first of 3 big antitrust fines leveled at the company, the third coming this past March.
The story of these two entrepreneurs is representative of the challenges facing many new entrepreneurs today – they are up against concentrated and centralized power not seen since the first Gilded Age, making it very difficult to compete.
See: Advancing Competition in a Changing Marketplace
Across many industries in the US and Canada, (and indeed globally), industries have become increasingly concentrated via waves of mergers and acquisitions. Many Canadians are aware of the main oligopolies of telco companies and banking. Banking is controlled by the Big 5 (TD Bank, RBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, CIBC) which would have been the Big 3 had the Competition Bureau not blocked merger proposals in 1998. And The Wireless Telecom industry in Canada is heavily concentrated, with the big three capturing an estimated 88.7% of the market between Rogers, Bell, and Telus.
But fewer are aware of how industrial concentration has seeped into nearly all areas of the economy: eyeglasses, pharmacies, grocers, retail, and even funeral services. Park Lawn Corp, Canada’s largest publicly traded funeral service provider, went from owning 9 funeral facilities in 2013 to over 149 locations by the middle of 2018. Investment strategists praise the company’s consolidation efforts because death, though unsexy, is now becoming highly profitable for shareholders.
When companies merge, they announce the great savings from “synergies” that they will share with customers. To give you a sense of how outlandish the estimates are, the accounting firm Deloitte calculated that the announced cost savings of the current mergers boom amounted to $1.9 trillion, which is more than the entirety of Canada’s GDP. Despite the purported ‘efficiency gains’ meant to come from merging, Canadians pay some of the highest rates globally for international travel, cell phone packages, and banking services.
Wall Street earned $21 billion in merger fees last year, so there is an incentive to keep this engine running. And the US has its sights set on Canada: outbound deals into the U.S. increased by 40% from $80.56-billion in 2017 to $112.9-billion in 2018 (USD).
This matters for fintech firms for a variety of reasons. Most crucially, it should serve as a warning. The internet was invented to avoid single points of failure and protect from nuclear attack. Yet, in 2014, nearly 50% of all internet traffic moved through the Google and Facebook universe. Today, it is closer to 70%. What was meant to be the world’s decentralized, democratized exchange of information has become beholden to two choke point companies that extract the majority of revenue value from the internet.
See: Technology is the ‘most profound force bearing down’ on big banks, ex-Barclays boss says
Blockchain-backed cryptocurrencies were invented with a similar premise of decentralization and democratization. However, Bitmain, a Chinese bitcoin mining company, is estimated to have 70 to 80% market share in bitcoin miners, earning $2.8 billion in revenue in 2018. It is unclear, more than 10 years since inception, who has benefitted most from blockchain technology as it has yet failed to significantly deliver on its most lofty claims about equitable distribution.
This is why it is increasingly important to recognize the powerful forces with incentives to re-centralize power, and to set up appropriate checks and balances via regulation and citizen engagement to support the next wave of Canadian entrepreneurs – fintech or otherwise.
For regulators and government: Tax and transfer approaches treat symptoms, not the true disease of concentrated market power and capital ownership. We need to adopt economic policies that support distributed economies that more widely disseminate power. We also need to get serious about bigness. Antitrust and merger review need a return to the forefront of political discourse, as they increasingly are in the United States. Caring about innovation means taking concentrated power seriously and supporting disruptive industries like fintech, crowdfunding, and blockchain.
Funders should change success metrics away from chasing elusive unicorns with billion dollar valuations to fostering thousands of stronger locally grown and supported companies. Yes, we want national champions, but we also want a robust network of medium-sized businesses that are sustainable and adding value to the economy that do not get swallowed by foreign giants.
Lack of competition in markets hurts consumers, workers, innovators and entrepreneurs. It leads to a host of other symptomatic ills like income inequality and, by extension, populism. As the famous US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said,
“We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
See:
-
Why Open Banking Represents a Seismic Shift for Fintech
-
Canada’s financial upstarts are lining up behind open banking, but bigger players may need convincing
-
Open Banking: What’s Really at Stake
The time is now to admonish incumbent oligopolists and to support challenger entrepreneurs.
Disruptive technologies will play a key role, but it is incumbent upon regulators to foster markets where everyone has a chance to compete. We all have a responsibility to help create a more equitably distributed economic future.
Denise Hearn, Co-Author, Myth of Capitalism, mythofcapitalism.com
Denise writes, presents, and consults on economics, systems change, and human flourishing. She has presented to over 50,000 people at venues including: The Oxford Union, Bloomberg, a Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee, and group homes for foster children. Things she find fun: investigating complex social and economic problems and co-creating organizational growth strategies with entrepreneurs and founders. She has done this across diverse fields: impact investing, education, the sharing economy, and macroeconomics.
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
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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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