Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Why blockchain technology is flourishing in Metro Vancouver—and how it will change your life
Georgia Straight | Kate Wilson | Aug 15, 2018
On the morning of October 29, 2013, a Waves coffee shop in downtown Vancouver had an unprecedented number of visitors. Regular customers at the Howe and Smithe streets location jostled for space with national journalists, all wielding tape recorders and cameras in an attempt to get an interview with those standing in front of a bulky, one-and-a-half-metre-tall, blue-and-white machine. The kiosk was the world’s first bitcoin ATM, and this was its opening day of trading.
The machine lived up to the hype. By the end of the week, it had exchanged more than $100,000 worth of the virtual currency.
That enthusiasm reflected a fervour for bitcoin that had been quietly growing in Vancouver since its inception in 2008. Knowledge of the cryptocurrency started small. In the wake of the global financial crisis, a mysterious individual or group authored a paper under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, titled "Bitcoin—A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System”. Posting the document on a mailing list dedicated to cryptography, “Nakamoto” laid the groundwork for the software to become publicly available in 2009.
Soon after, Vancouverites began meeting to discuss the idea’s implications. Early conversations whispered that bitcoin could operate without the control of central banks, that it could exchange money more swiftly, and that it could drastically reduce transaction fees. Many were fascinated by how bitcoin’s exciting underlying technology, called blockchain, would support it.
The most passionate individuals formed the Vancouver Bitcoin Co-op—a group closely associated with those who would go on to operate the first bitcoin ATM. Leasing a space underneath a downtown barbershop, they established a location to meet, code, and talk shop about cryptocurrency and the untapped promise of blockchain. They dubbed the new hub DCTRL.
“My first experience of the spot was when it was more of a hacker space,” Chelsea Palmer, a community organizer, tells the Georgia Straight from one of two worn leather couches in its main room. “My friend was playing a DJ set here in December 2014. I was finishing my master’s degree on the social theory of tech, and while I found everything that was going on there really interesting, I knew I wouldn’t complete my thesis if I didn’t focus in on that. The next summer, I came back.”
DCTRL is now unofficially known as the cradle of Vancouver’s blockchain ecosystem. Of the city’s most prominent companies using the tech, many have roots in the community incubator. Businesses such as Mike Olthoff’s Coincards—a service that transforms cryptocurrency into gift cards—have been launched from the hub’s backrooms, and once-hoodied hackers have transitioned into high-flying jobs in downtown startups.
Palmer suggests that the reason that DCTRL has spawned so many companies—including retail trading outlet Quantfury, consulting agency DigitalFutures, and thriving podcast Advance Tech Media—is because of the group’s inclusivity. Newcomers are told that the space is a “do-ocracy”: an organizational structure that lets individuals do as they please without consulting a leader. Based on an ethos tied closely to the 10 principles of Nevada festival Burning Man—its radical self-expression and participation included—DCTRL has hallways peppered with eccentric murals depicting everything from a tangled octopus to a beaming Shiba Inu, star of the “doge” meme. A small, haphazardly sound-proofed room filled with free-to-use musical instruments sits off to the side of the larger meeting area, where the couches are fitted with wheels so gatherers can grow and shrink the space, depending on a discussion’s intimacy.
The place is funded by the group’s most dedicated members, who invite those intrigued by the technology to visit for meet-ups and conversations.
See: Blockchain has the potential to do amazing things, but it needs a reboot
“We specialize in outreach at DCTRL,” Palmer says. “We try to connect with people that are super new to the technology. What I like most about our community here is that it’s always been free, welcoming, and publicly accessible. We hold discussions that anyone can follow and make it clear that anyone can ask questions. That’s something I’ve tried to push: ensuring you’re not using a bunch of highly specialized language without explaining what it means. We don’t want anyone to feel unintentionally excluded or to blame themselves if they don’t get it.”
In Palmer’s view, bitcoin and blockchain are easy to understand with the right explanation.
How bitcoin and blockchain work
Historically, when individuals wanted to transfer money or valuable commodities, it was necessary to have a central authority like a bank or government authorize the transaction and make sure it wasn’t fraudulent. Those middlemen ensured that both parties were acting in good faith, and they kept a record of what was exchanged so that documents couldn’t be faked.
Bitcoin, however, offered a way to transfer electronic cash directly between individuals. Payments could be made with a high level of trust to strangers, without requiring anyone to facilitate the transaction. This could be done using blockchain technology.
A blockchain is a type of ledger or database that records information. Unlike a bank’s ledger, which is controlled by an entity such as RBC or BMO, a blockchain is decentralized. The database is replicated precisely on any computer connected to the network, and is synchronized through the Internet to make sure that it is always up-to-date. As a result, no one person or organization owns the records.
When each exchange is carried out, it is grouped with any other agreements that have occurred in the past 10 minutes, and sent out to the network. These collections of transactions are known as blocks. When a block is created, any information it contains is officially verified, and the data can no longer be changed or removed.
Building these blocks can be done by anyone with a motherboard, some graphics-processing chips, and a simple piece of software. The people who choose to do so, known as “miners”, use their computers to solve very complex math puzzles. Each miner competes against the others to solve the problem, and create a new block. The first person to do so receives a reward—which, on the bitcoin blockchain network, is currently 12.5 bitcoins (about $100,500).
See: Listen NOW FINTECH FRIDAY$ Podcast - EP5 AUG 17: Wallstreet meets Crypto
As each new block is validated, it is marked with the time of its completion and is attached to the previous one. These blocks are placed in chronological order and “chained” together. The chain is copied onto all the computers in the network in real time, allowing individuals to read the transaction history in a simple, linear way.
There are many advantages, advocates say, to choosing blockchain technology over the conventional banking system. Blockchains are publicly visible and accessible anywhere in the world, meaning that anyone can see what dealings have taken place. Because the ledger is decentralized and exists in a large number of different locations, its creators believe it can never be hacked, as a fraudster would need to erase a transaction on more than half of the computers connected to the network—a number that can run into the hundreds of thousands. Secure, open, and democratic, blockchains have the power to transfer control from central organizations back to individuals.
Although the technology is most commonly associated with bitcoin, that is only one of a number of applications. Right now, Palmer points out, hundreds of companies are attempting to use blockchain for alternative ideas.
“Bitcoin is currently a more recognizable term than blockchain,” she says. “That means that its killer app has succeeded. But a lot of us believe that these unalterable databases will create opportunities for things like radical self-governance, banking the unbanked, and offering greater ethics in research. The tech has a lot of potential.”
How the city’s companies are using blockchain
In Vancouver, local businesses are imagining diverse and creative uses for the technology.
Among the most exciting is newly minted company HyperVote—a business spun out of local research group Blockchain@UBC. Voting in elections can be time-consuming, and—as the U.S. presidential election publicly highlighted—ballot results are sometimes challenged. HyperVote’s platform reinvents the process. Rather than going to a polling station, individuals can vote using their cellphones from anywhere in the world. Its software allows citizens to track that their choice has registered, and it offers greater security and trust by placing the selections on a blockchain that has, so far, proven impossible to edit. Every ballot can be audited if contested, and no voter can change their choice once it’s been inscribed, tackling issues of voter fraud.
Social impact, too, is the driving factor behind another Blockchain@UBC project: the creation of digital identity cards for people living in the Downtown Eastside. Dubbed Canada’s poorest postal code because of its low median income, its streets host many who have lost their government ID. Without official documents, citizens can be turned away from vital services such as food banks, shelters, or detox clinics, driving the cycle of poverty and addiction. To combat that, the UBC iLab is building an app that allows users to upload an authenticated copy of their B.C. Services Card to a private blockchain. The information will let organizations verify an individual’s identity and provide better care.
See:
Although Vancouver boasts innovative upstarts, its blockchain community is anchored by a few influential companies. One of the largest and most mature is the Vanbex Group. As in many local businesses, the organization’s founder, Lisa Cheng, was a prominent member of DCTRL. Graduating from being a self-described “computer nerd” to a vital employee of early cryptocurrency organization Mastercoin, Cheng next started her own company with Kevin Hobbs, who was working as a corporate foreign-exchange trader. Together, the pair created a multifaceted organization using the technology that, in Hobbs’s words, “would change absolutely everything”.
“I guess how I’d describe the Vanbex Group now is that we’re a full-stack professional-service-and-development company, but one that specializes in blockchain,” CEO Hobbs tells the Georgia Straight from the firm’s downtown office, a location that he says it has already outgrown.
“We started as a marketing and consultancy company. We’ve expanded to do community, and social, and branding, and legal guidance, and whitepaper-writing for any company that wants to incorporate blockchain into its product. On the other side, we’re a full incubator. We help people mould their company and adapt blockchain into their business model for future success.”
One of the ways that the Vanbex Group makes the technology accessible to other outfits is with its own blockchain-based platform, named Etherparty. Its first creation, Rocket, launched this summer.
The Rocket software addresses two of the most prominent uses of the blockchain in the professional world—developing “tokens”, and completing an “ICO”. The concept is revolutionary. Previously, if a private organization wanted to borrow cash to cover its costs, it would pitch to venture capitalists or accredited investors. Each would then take a percentage of the company—known as equity—in return.
Blockchain technology instead established a way for private companies to ask everyday people to invest. In order to reach the public, those organizations create their own token: a digital coupon tied to a product or service. Tokens are bought by individuals, who can then redeem their value by spending them on the product they’re associated with after it’s been developed, trading them to another person, or selling them for major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Those cryptocurrencies can then be converted into more traditional “fiat” currencies, like U.S. or Canadian dollars.
See: Nikola Tesla Unite to use Alianza Motorsports to Educate Race Fans on Crypto
Tokens are created and distributed through a process known as an initial coin offering, or ICO. Similar in some ways to an initial public offering (IPO)—the undertaking where private companies sell their stock to the public for the first time—an ICO lets any interested party put as much or as little money into the company as they like. Unlike an IPO, however, buying tokens does not mean that the individual can vote on the direction of the business, and the company doesn’t need to give away any equity. Instead, the process operates in a similar way to crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, giving organizations a large amount of money up-front—sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars—to develop their idea. Investors then hope to recoup the value of their venture as the product or service grows in popularity, increasing the price of the token, or by buying the product the token is associated with at a discount.
Since the world’s first ICO in 2013, tokens continue to be created at staggering rates. In the first four months of 2018 alone, businesses worldwide collectively raised $6.3 billion through the process. Despite that enthusiasm, though, ICOs are often long, complex, and fraught with controversies. Rocket, the Vanbex Group says, will simplify the ICO process, and can be used by companies to assure interested buyers that their tokens are legitimate.
“It’s an all-in-one crowdfunding platform,” Hobbs says. “Companies can come in and build their token, write their crowdfunding contracts, create their ICO page, and input their marketing. It does everything a business needs to go out and market their token, and make sure it’s technically sound, and we also do the security audits so you know your token is safe. It will walk you through every step, and it takes about five minutes to do the whole thing. We’ve designed it for the regular person—people can use it without being a coder.
Hobbs hopes that the platform will help to make the funding process more democratic and transparent, letting the everyday individual take a look under the hood of how a business is bankrolled. That’s a concept, he says, that will also underpin its second product, a piece of software named Saturn.
Saturn aims to tackle the muddiness associated with supply chains. In industries such as high-street fashion, major brands like Forever 21, Zara, and ASOS have come under fire for using slave labour to create their garments. Well-known electronics businesses, too, are responsible for using factories that ignore its workers’ human rights, taking away passports and using child labour to fill orders. When challenged, guilty companies often claim they are unaware of abuses because subcontractors obfuscate the origins of their products.
As an enormous, uneditable database, blockchain is well suited to tracking objects, and has the capacity to map items from origin to purchase. When Saturn is completed, the Vanbex Group hopes that businesses will be able to trace exactly where their stock is being made.
On top of that, the technology can be used to speed up processes in the supply chain. A key feature of blockchain is the ability to create smart contracts—a way of telling the recorded data how to behave. A smart contract can define the rules and penalties of an agreement in the same way as a traditional contract but is able to enforce them without human input. By writing these agreements, companies can cut out the middlemen tracking orders and shipments, as the blockchain distributes money to the right people as soon as the conditions are met.
See: Fintech Frenzy: Hype or Reality? A Closer Look at 6 Key Sectors
“Supply-chain management is a great example of what blockchain will disrupt,” Hobbs says. “Multiple people have to interact with each other, and contracts and payments must be fulfilled at each step. Blockchain can get rid of all that paperwork. Instead of a 90- to 120-day turnaround, a smart contract can ensure that all the transactions happen instantly, and if something is wrong in the process, it will not proceed to the next step. Supply-chain management is perfect use case for blockchain.”
The limitations of blockchain
Although the technology has—in theory—the capability to transform fundamental services, a number of blockchain companies have been criticised for making overly optimistic claims. At base, a blockchain is a slow ledger that is ill-suited to handling complex data. Although the hype around the tech has inspired companies as diverse as Long Island Iced Tea and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s diploma-granting department to incorporate it into their business, there are, for the moment, few instances where blockchain can fulfill an organization’s goals. For Hobbs, those unrealistic statements could damage the industry’s reputation.
“People are promising the world,” he says. “They say they’ll do this, that, and everything just to get the blue-sky investors in. A lot of people are naïve and don’t really know about the technology, and while they understand that there are lots of great things about it, there are many issues. We’re still at dial-up and everyone is promising high-speed.
See: Bank of Canada, TMX say blockchain feasible for securities settlement
“We still need to solve things like storage, capacity, and speed,” he continues. “People talk about doing a financial transaction online. Often when you’re sending money overseas, people might want to see a picture of your driver’s licence. You can’t store a picture of your licence on the blockchain. It just can’t hold that much data. So if you can’t send the information of the transaction together with the image, you have to send it from different places. And when you have to go outside of the blockchain for something, is it really still valuable? Not really. Because now you have a record of a transaction that happened, but if your data is corrupted outside of that, you can’t trust that audited transaction.”
In Hobbs’s view, the best way to combat those deceptive promises is through education—but because the technology is so complex, the process can be lengthy.
“We consult with people like big banks and governments, and we’ve been doing it for many years,” he says. “The first time you talk to people, you get a lot of ‘Uh-huhs’. The second time, you get ‘Hmmm’. By the fifth, sixth, and seventh time, they’re starting to get it, but it takes about nine meetings for people to really understand, because they have the chance to go back and Google something and learn a little more.”
Recently, however, the CEO has noticed himself spending less time explaining the specifics of the technology. Since blockchain has entered the mainstream, more resources have become available for self-learning and discussion. Local universities have started to offer courses on the basics, and newspapers are paying attention to major developments. Like the technology itself, understanding of blockchain has begun to be democratized.
Despite the glut of online videos and articles describing how the technology works, though, the biggest driving force behind adoption isn’t the media. It’s cartoon cats.
Kittens on the blockchain
In October 2017, four individuals from Vancouver company Axiom Zen decided to reimagine how blockchain technology could be used. Frustrated that programmers were limiting their imagination to financial transactions, the group attended the prestigious ETHWaterloo hackathon with the goal of launching one of the first blockchain experiences for everyday people. Dressed in rainbow-coloured cat T-shirts and sporting cat-shaped balloons, the group announced themselves as the CryptoKitties team.
More: This man has made more money trading cryptokitties than investing in his IRA
Weeks later, the idea they started to code at the event had become the world’s most successful blockchain game.
“We make collectable, breedable, and adorable little [virtual] cats,” Bryce Bladon, cofounder and communications manager for the company, tells the Straight on the line from his Vancouver office. “In simplest terms, CryptoKitties is an example of what the technology is capable of.”
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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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