Weekly FinTech & Financial News
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Top FinTech Updates this Week
🌟 PayPal submitted applications to the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and FDIC to establish PayPal Bank, a proposed Utah-chartered industrial loan company for U.S. small businesses
🚀 Klarna launched its Agentic Product Protocol, an open standard that makes 100M+ products instantly discoverable by AI agents
🚀 Stripe introduced the Agentic Commerce Suite, enabling businesses to sell through multiple AI agents
🚀 Wealthsimple, Toronto-based wealthtech platform, launched a full-service wealth management offering with personalized advice for a fee
🌟 Nuvei, Montreal-based payment provider, received a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR)
Top Financial Institutions Updates this Week
🤝 BMO joins Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), US-based open source initiative to shape the future of responsible AI in finance
🚀 JPMorgan Chase prepares to launch its first tokenized money market fund named “My OnChain Net Yield Fund” (MONY)
🚀 Khalsa Credit Union, a Surrey-based financial institution serving the Sikh community launched Dasvandh Term Deposit, a faith based investing product launch a unique investment offering to amplify members’ positive impact on the world
🚀 Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) launched a new, $4B Defence Platform allowing the Crown corporation to invest in and support Canadian defence technology companies
🌟 CIBC to change the listing venue of all remaining CIBC Canadian Depositary Receipts offerings from Cboe Canada Inc. to the Toronto Stock Exchange
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ConstructionClock, Winnipeg-based construction payroll app, raised a $2M in seed round to expand its team and the company’s global footprint. The company is also looking to use the funding to launch its payroll feature in US states in 2026 and also earned wage access (EWA) solution. The round saw participation from Trillick, M25 and an undisclosed angel investor. | BetaKit
YouTube teams with PayPal to pay creators with stablecoins. So far, this feature only applies to U.S. users. YouTube parent Google confirmed that the site has added payouts for creators in PayPal’s stablecoin. PayPal earlier this year added the capability for payment recipients to get paid in PayPal’s stablecoin, PYUSD. | PYMNTS
Visa launches Stablecoin settlement in the United States, marking a breakthrough for Stablecoin integration. U.S. issuer and acquirer partners can settle with Visa in Circle’s USDC, a fully reserved, dollar-denominated stablecoin. With USDC settlement, issuers can benefit from faster funds movement over blockchains, seven‑day availability and enhanced operational resilience across weekends and holidays - without any change to the consumer card experience. Initial banking participants include Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, which have started settling with Visa in USDC over the Solana blockchain. Broader availability in the U.S. is planned through 2026. | Visa
Interac partnered with MATTR, a global digital trust infrastructure to scale digital credential capabilities for Canadians. With this integration, Interac VerifiedTM strengthens its position as a trusted Canadian platform for issuing, managing, and verifying digital credentials – giving organizations a more seamless and scalable way to adopt credentials. With MATTR’s infrastructure, Interac Verified will provide participating organizations with a complete platform that supports the entire lifecycle of digital credentials. | Interac
Nuvei, a Montreal-based payment provider received a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) license under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR). The MiCAR license enables Nuvei to provide regulated crypto-asset services across the European Union and passport those services across EU member states under a single regulatory regime. This significantly simplifies expansion for merchants and platforms seeking to deploy crypto-enabled payment and settlement capabilities across multiple European markets. | Nuvei
Stripe introduced the Agentic Commerce Suite, a new solution to help businesses get ready to sell through multiple AI agents. Agentic Commerce Suite removes technical complexity with a low-code solution for businesses, letting them sell across AI agents with a single integration. Agentic Commerce Suite also handles Shared Payment Tokens, which let AI agents securely pass a buyer’s payment credentials to businesses for processing payments. Businesses including Coach, Kate Spade, URBN (including Anthropologie, Free People, and Urban Outfitters), Revolve, Ashley Furniture, Halara, ABT Electronics, and Nectar, along with ecommerce platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, Etsy, WooCommerce, commercetools, and BigCommerce, will use Agentic Commerce Suite. | Fintech Finance News
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BMO joins Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), US-based open source initiative to shape the future of responsible AI in finance. The Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) recently launched an initiative to develop vendor-neutral AI adoption standards for the financial services industry. BMO is among a handful of global financial institutions and cloud providers participating in this collaborative effort to define standardized controls for safe and compliant AI adoption. These standards will support a real-time compliance validation toolkit designed to help developers meet regulatory and ethical expectations from day one. | BMO
JPMorgan Chase prepares to launch its first tokenized money market fund named “My OnChain Net Yield Fund” (MONY). The fund requires a minimum investment of $1M. The bank’s asset management unit is deploying the fund on the Ethereum blockchain adding that J.P. Morgan will seed the fund using $100 million of its own capital before opening it to outside investors. The private “My OnChain Net Yield Fund” (MONY) is supported by J.P. Morgan’s tokenization platform, Kinexys Digital Assets, and will be open to investors with at least $5M in investments and institutions with a minimum of $25M. | PYMNTS
National Bank sues Flinks and Deck co-founders Yves-Gabriel Lebœuf and Frédérick Lavoie for $5.7M, alleging that their new company, Deck, violates a non-competition agreement. The lawsuit claims the co-founders started Deck after gradually disengaging from Flinks and misrepresented Deck's business scope. National Bank alleges Deck competes by offering financial data aggregation services covered by the non-compete clauses. The co-founders denies the allegations, saying the startup will file a statement of defence. | The Logic
BMO tapped Caroline Dufaux as Chief Financial Officer of its U.S. division while the lender works to improve the unit’s profitability. Ms. Dufaux is currently CFO of the bank’s capital markets unit, where she provides financial governance, strategic direction and decision-making support. She will join the U.S. division in the midst of BMO’s efforts to improve its return-on-equity (ROE) – a key measure of profitability – which has been weighed down by the lender’s business in that country. Ms. Dufaux fills a vacancy left by Rahul Nalgirkar, who was named BMO’s new CFO as Tayfun Tuzun prepares to retire in 2026. She will take on her new role as of Jan. 1. | The Globe and Mail
Capital One, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and TD Bank drive more than 75% of the banking sector’s AI filings as per new data from Evident’s Banking AI Patent Tracker. Evident has tracked 1,516 AI-specific patents filed since January 2023 by 21 leading banks across the US, Canada, Europe and APAC. The data offers the first consolidated view of how banks are converting AI research into defensible IP, and where strategic focus is shifting as GenAI, agents and multimodal systems move closer to production. Key findings from the Evident Banking AI Patent Tracker include: Three banks dominate global filings. Capital One, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are responsible for 75% of all AI patents filed by banks in the past decade. The top 10 filers are all based in North America: Capital One, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, TD Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, US Bank, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and PNC. Agentic AI patents are nascent but growing. Just eight banks globally have filed for agentic capabilities, led by Bank of America, Capital One and JPMorgan Chase, followed by TD Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, BNY Mellon and Barclays. | Finextra
Khalsa Credit Union, a Surrey-based financial institution serving the Sikh community launched Dasvandh Term Deposit, a faith based investing product launch a unique investment offering to amplify members’ positive impact on the world. With this unique deposit product, members earn a full return, and community benefits through a donation made by Khalsa Credit Union. Members' savings stay safe with CUDIC 100% deposit guarantee. | LinkedIn
EQ Bank partnered with Wise to offer international payments that use the real exchange rate - with no markups or hidden fees. Through one simple API integration, EQ Bank has one streamlined connection to a global payments network, and its customers get faster, cheaper, and more transparent transfers - all without ever leaving the EQ Bank app The bank needed to launch its global payments service quickly and securely, and Wise delivery team got them live in just one month. Also, y tapping into Wise's global payments infrastructure, the bank was able to remove the complexity of managing licenses, settlement accounts, and correspondent banking relationships. | Wise
EQ Bank appoints Mike Pedersen to the Board of Directors effective immediately and will nominate him as Chair in April 2026 AGM following the retirement of Vincenza Sera. Mr. Pedersen brings more than three decades of leadership in global financial services, with a proven record of providing governance and strategy oversight through periods of impactful growth and transformation. Mr. Pedersen currently serves on the boards of CGI, AtkinsRéalis and Clean Prosperity. He served as Chair of the Board at Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) from 2018 to 2023. | PR Newswire
Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) launched a new, $4B Defence Platform allowing the Crown corporation to invest in and support Canadian defence technology companies. The platform includes $3.5B for financing and advisory services to help Canadian businesses scale and participate in “major defence contracts and national projects focused on sovereignty.” Another $500M will be delivered through three streams of venture capital: a deep-tech, dual-use focused StrongNorth Fund, the Catalyst Innovation Fund, and indirect investments in VC funds “aligned with Canada’s defence and sovereignty priorities.” The funding is part of a larger push from the federal government to boost defence spending in Canada to a target of five percent of GDP by 2035. | BetaKit
Standard Chartered and Coinbase expanded partnership on digital assets to explore the development of trading, prime services, custody, staking and lending solutions for institutional clients. By leveraging Standard Chartered’s global expertise as a leading international cross-border bank and digital asset innovation capabilities, underpinned by a rigorous risk management framework, and Coinbase’s market-leading institutional platform, the collaboration aims to develop a comprehensive digital asset solution offering for institutional clients globally, providing a seamless and secure experience for trading and managing digital assets. | Fintech Finance News
CIBC to change the listing venue of all remaining CIBC Canadian Depositary Receipts offerings from Cboe Canada Inc. to the Toronto Stock Exchange. CIBC received conditional approval from TSX to list the CDRs on its exchange, and CIBC anticipates that the migration will be executed over two tranches and finalized by December 23, 2025. | CIBC
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Tetra Trust, Calgary-based crypto custodian firm successfully tested CADD in a controlled, proof-of-concept environment, paving the way for a launch in Q1 2026. Tetra claimed the tests made CADD the first Canadian-dollar stablecoin to move between two financial institutions, successfully transferring between National Bank and Wealthsimple. The tests highlight CADD’s potential to streamline payments and settlement while “preserving the safeguards that underpin Canada’s financial system,” | BetaKit
Coinbase launches custom-branded stablecoin for partners, backed by flexible collateral, including USDC. Coinbase Custom Stablecoins offer: the ability to embed brand in every transaction; rewards on balances with best-in-class economics; and a seamless issuance process managed by Coinbase. Initial innovative partners include Flipcash, Solflare, and R2 who are exploring the launch of Custom Stablecoins for their customers in the coming months. | Coinbase
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Equisoft, Montreal-based insurance and investment software solution provider embeds Anthropic’s Claude AI Models to create AI-powered knowledge capabilities in life insurance solutions. This delivers advanced AI capabilities directly within Equisoft’s solutions while accelerating policy administration system (PAS) modernization projects and fostering innovation across the company’s team members worldwide. Additionally, the enterprise-wide deployment provides all Equisoft team members with secure access to AI capabilities, fostering innovation while maintaining strict data privacy and security standards essential for handling sensitive policyholder information. | Insurance-Canada.ca
BrokerLink, Alberta, Ontario, and Atlantic Canada-based insurance brokerage firm acquires four Alberta-based brokerages, namely, Excel &Y/Lundgren & Young Insurance, AUVI Insurance Brokers Corporation, Sceptre Pointe Insurance, and Bentley Agencies. These acquisitions, which took effect Dec. 1, strengthen BrokerLink's Western Canada footprint and enhance its ability to provide personal and commercial insurance solutions across local communities. Employees from all four brokerages will remain in their communities under the BrokerLink umbrella, ensuring continuity of service for clients. | Insurance Business Mag.
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Wealthsimple, a Toronto-based wealthtech platform launched a full service wealth management service for a fee for personalized advice. Wealthsimple wealth management services let the customers take control of their money with support from a trusted advisor, backed by powerful platform and planning tools. | Wealthsimple
Investment Planning Counsel Inc., Mississauga-based a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada Life, acquired the wealth assets of De Thomas Wealth Management, a Richmond Hill-based investment firm. The transaction reflects IPC’s continued growth in the independent wealth dealer space and underscores its strategic position as a premier destination for entrepreneurial advisors in Canada. With this, IPC adds 35 advisors to their overall advisory network across the country plus an additional $2.8B in assets under administration bringing its total AUA to over $43B. | Canada Life
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The Government of Canada signed non-binding agreement with Coveo, Montreal-based AI firm to “increase internal efficiency". The memorandum of understanding (MOU), jointly signed by federal AI minister Evan Solomon and government transformation minister Joël Lightbound, with Québec City-based Coveo, allows the government to explore how it can deploy the company’s AI-powered enterprise solutions in its operations. This can include generative and agentic AI technologies, enterprise search, personalized recommendations, and citizen service improvements. | BetaKit
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Klarna launches Agentic Product Protocol: the open standard that makes 100M+ products instantly discoverable by AI agents. The protocol establishes the structured foundation that allows agents to find, compare, and recommend real products with live prices and availability, across merchants, markets, and platforms. Klarna’s Agentic Product Protocol defines a common language for how AI systems, merchants, and platforms exchange product data - a foundational layer for the next generation of agentic commerce. | Business Wire
SAF Group, Calgary-based alternative investment manager launches a new insurance-backed investment vehicle designed to provide financing to underserved borrowers. SAF Group, under the leadership of Ryan Dunfield, established a partnership with American Life & Security Corp., a Nebraska-based life annuity provider, and GQG Partners’ private capital solutions unit. This collaboration has created a reinsurance vehicle that provides SAF with access to approximately C$2B ($1.45B) to C$2.5B in capital. The structure was initially funded with roughly C$250M in regulatory capital and includes an option for future expansion. The capital will be directed toward loans ranging from C$15M to C$250M. These loans will target borrowers with limited access to flexible financing, including evergreen private equity funds, mortgage investment corporations, real estate mortgage pools, auto-loan portfolios, and other private-credit managers. | Investing.com
Klarna witnessed over 100% growth in active Canadian consumers in 2025, according to Steven Clarke, Head of Canada & North American Partnerships. It is a testament to how Canadians are embracing flexible, transparent, and rewarding ways to shop and pay. Canadians can now shop UNIQLO online with Klarna, making it easier than ever to enjoy timeless style with flexible payments that fit their lifestyle. Klarna is on a mission to transform shopping into something smarter, simpler, and more inspiring — and milestones like this show how Klarna is helping more consumers and retailers connect meaningfully every day. | LinkedIn
ClearScore, UK-based credit marketplace, launches its pre-approved credit cards and loans in Canada, giving borrowers more certainty and less stress. Through direct integrations with lenders, ClearScore’s marketplace features pre-approved credit offers, giving users certainty with guaranteed rates, credit limits and loan amounts, without harming credit scores. Lenders such as Fig and Karoo are taking the lead by partnering with ClearScore to offer these pre-approved products. | Business Wire
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OWNI launched an AI-powered co-buying platform to make real estate more accessible and affordable by matching individuals with compatible partners to jointly purchase property. This solution, developed by a team from the Station Fintech ecosystem, offers a new approach to a very real issue: access to property ownership. The platform aims to simplify the process of co-ownership, offering a modern alternative to traditional mortgages, especially for first-time buyers and single individuals who might otherwise be priced out of the market. | OWNI
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FISPAN, Vancouver-based embedded ERP banking solution provider is recognized as a market leader in the Datos Insights Matrix: ERP Banking report. This comprehensive industry report evaluates the competitive landscape of vendors integrating banking services directly into corporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems or accounting software. The Datos report emphasizes a market shift toward specialized embedded ERP banking solutions, noting that generic APIs are no longer sufficient. | FISPAN
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SimpleHedge, Calgary-based hedging platform for farmers raised a $4M in seed round to expand its platform. The round included Tall Grass Ventures, Trillick Ventures, Startup TNT, Barrel Ventures, and others. The new funding will support hiring in Calgary and Winnipeg and help scale product development. SimpleHedge says its app has already supported more than US$350M in transactions from nearly 3,000 farmers and now manages over 110 million acres. | Calgary.Tech
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Woodway Assurance, an Ottawa-based data assurance technology company, closed a seed funding round of $1M. The round was led by Aventure Capital, with participation from other angel investors. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth by building out its capacity in sales, marketing and customer success, and by continuing to enhance the technological capabilities of its flagship product EviData. | FinSMEs
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Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) launched InnovateSafe, a regulatory sandbox designed to allow CIRO-regulated firms to safely test innovative products and technologies. InnovateSafe reinforces CIRO’s commitment to delivering efficient, effective regulation that responds to the evolving needs of investors, dealers, and markets. InnovateSafe will support CIRO-regulated firms in building compliant solutions that are ready for full market deployment by granting temporary approvals and, where warranted, targeted exemptive relief. The testing environment could help accelerate the adoption of transformative or novel products, services, ideas or technologies that could help position Canada as a global leader in financial innovation. | CIRO
Scott Bessent, United States Secretary of the Treasury predicts that the stablecoin market could expand tenfold from its current $300B valuation to $3T by 2030. Speaking at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Treasury Market Conference, Bessent said the Treasury is "closely monitoring growth in money market funds and the stablecoin market, which are both large investors in Treasury bills". Bessent attributed the projected growth to the GENIUS Act, the first federal legislation regulating stablecoins. | Perplexity
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