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October 19-23, 2026
Top FinTech Updates this Week
🤝 Equifax added three Mastercard Open Finance products to its Open Banking solutions, giving customers more choice in the Open Finance provider they use alongside the Equifax consumer credit file
🤝 Visa, BILL and Billtrust launched the first live pilot to enable trusted AI agents to initiate and complete approved buyer invoice payments end-to-end through supplier portals
🤝 Klarna is now available on Fiserv Commerce Hub and Clover, allowing merchants in the US, Canada, and Europe to offer flexible BNPL options at 100,000+ locations
🤝 Manulife through a new partnership with Travelgoogoo, a Singapore-based travel connectivity company, enabling eligible Manulife travel insurance customers to receive a complimentary one-year eSIM membership
💼 KORT Payments, Toronto-based omnichannel payments platform for businesses is moving into account-to-account money movement with a definitive agreement to acquire AptPay, a Toronto-based payments technology company focused on real-time payments and payment orchestration
🌟 Nium, the global leader in real-time cross-border payments infrastructure and Relay, Toronto-based business banking and money management platform have processed over $500M in cross-border payments for small businesses in just one year, supporting transfers to 153 countries via Nium's global infrastructure
Top Financial Institutions Updates this Week
🚀 Kinexys by J.P. Morgan launched JPM Coin on Ethereum, allowing institutional clients to use bank-issued onchain cash for payments and tokenized asset settlement across Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks
🚀 Bell, BMO, CIBC, Desjardins, National Bank, RBC, Rogers Communications, Scotiabank and TELUS, Canada's leading financial institutions, telecom providers and EnStream launched the Cross-Sector Anti-Fraud Exchange (CSAFE) to share confirmed fraud intelligence through a single, common platform to further help protect Canadians against fraud
🌟 RBC CEO Dave McKay stated that bank is considering blocking Muse, Meta Platform Inc.’s popular artificial intelligence agent, from accessing the bank’s customer information
🌟 BMO is deepening its commitment to Canada's defence sector, building on its longstanding support for the Canadian Defence Community to mobilize up to $70B in capital over 10 years for sectors critical to Canada's economic security and resilience
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The deal combines KORT's omnichannel payments business with AptPay's multi-rail money movement platform. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. AptPay offers businesses a single integration for moving money across multiple payment rails, including Mastercard Send, Visa Original Credit Transaction (OCT), Interac e-Transfer, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), Automated Clearing House (ACH), Real Time Payments (RTP), FedNow, and cross-border transfers. Through this integration, businesses can route payments across these rails rather than connecting to each one separately. The platform includes built-in compliance tools for know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and sanctions screening. AptPay serves merchants and platforms in Canada and the US, particularly in gaming and gambling, digital assets, and financial services. The acquisition extends KORT's capabilities beyond card acceptance to account-to-account payments and disbursements. Customers will be able to both collect and send funds through one provider and a consolidated platform. | The Paypers
Leveraging offerings such as Visa Trusted Agent Protocol, AI agents can now be securely authenticated to credentialed portals. As a result, buyer payments that previously relied on manual entry can be completed by trusted AI agents, while preserving supplier control and oversight. The flow begins when the authorized BILL Payment Agent registered using Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol and Agentic Directory uses tokenized payment credentials and controls aligned with the buyer’s approved payment instructions to issue payments on behalf of BILL's customers. Supported by capabilities within the Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC) portfolio, this enables BILL to securely automate card payments for supplier invoices. Once the payment is initiated, Billtrust leverages Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol to recognize, authenticate, and grant access to the authorized agent enabling BILL to complete the invoice payment on the customer's behalf. As a result, Billtrust customers can receive fast portal payments in accordance with their acceptance policy, which can help accelerate cash flow. | Visa
With Link, built by Stripe, entrepreneurs can ask Claude Duet to buy anything they might need, anywhere on the internet – whether that's digital ads, business cards, lunch for the team, or more whiteboard markers. They approve each purchase before Claude completes the transaction with a virtual card. With Stripe MCP, entrepreneurs can use Claude Duet to send invoices and payment links, manage products and prices, analyse revenue and issue refunds – all without leaving the app. | Stripe
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AI agents including Muse, which was released to the public last month, have the potential to disrupt bank business models by automating cash transfers into higher-yielding accounts. But McKay said there are concerns about not being able to monitor transactions. Data “being scraped or taken away without their consent or fraudulent consent” is another issue, he said. McKay said Canada is poised to be a prime destination for AI investment, given its power generation capabilities and clear rules from the government about building data centre capacity. While the RBC CEO is a strong proponent of the technology, having invested significantly in his own bank’s deployment of AI, McKay said he’s taking steps to limit direct exposure to the sector. | Financial Post
The move is designed to meet rising institutional demand for bank-issued onchain cash that can operate alongside tokenized assets, collateral, and the counterparties with whom institutions already transact. By launching on Ethereum, Kinexys aims to leverage the network’s established liquidity and its existing ecosystem of tokenized real-world assets. Institutional clients now have the ability to move funds quickly and securely across both Ethereum and Base. This interoperability meaningfully expands access to native onchain cash across these specific networks, allowing for more efficient value transfer in a digital-native environment. JPM Coin joins a suite of existing J.P. Morgan tokenized products on Ethereum. | TradeTech Eye
Mr. Henry joins Central 1 as a recognized financial services leader with more than three decades of experience leading large-scale businesses, enterprise transformation and strategic change across Canada’s financial services sector. Throughout his career, he has held senior executive positions spanning operations, strategy, risk, data, digital banking and payments, while also serving in board and governance roles. The Board also extends its sincere thanks to Barclay Hancock for his leadership as Interim President & CEO. As Central 1’s Chief Payments Officer, Mr. Hancock will support a smooth leadership transition and help welcome Mr. Henry to Central 1’s clients, partners and stakeholder community. | Central 1
Ms. Abdelmessih is a seasoned risk management and financial services executive with extensive experience in enterprise risk management, capital oversight, regulatory compliance and corporate governance. Throughout her career, she has advised and led organizations through complex strategic, regulatory and operational challenges, developing a reputation for disciplined decision-making and strong governance oversight. She currently serves on the First Capital Real Estate Investment Trust Board and the Scientific Games Board and is the Chair of the Export Development Canada Board. She is also the incoming President and CEO of the Global Risk Institute. This change will be effective immediately. | EQB
It recognized the Bank's progress and commitment to building meaningful relationships with Indigenous Peoples, communities, organizations, and businesses across Canada. PAIR is a multi-year certification program that recognizes organizations demonstrating measurable and sustained progress in Indigenous relations and economic reconciliation. Independently verified, the certification evaluates performance across four key pillars: Leadership, Business Development, Community Relationships, and Employment. Building on this milestone, the Bank continues its efforts in fostering long-term, trust-based relationships with Indigenous communities and supporting initiatives that advance education, culture, well-being, and economic development. These include: Fostering a greater understanding of Indigenous realities | Creating pathways to attract, recruit, retain, and develop Indigenous talent | Establishing a dedicated Indigenous Relations team, under the leadership of Steve Berna | Deepening support for Indigenous communities through enhanced investment and Advancing economic reconciliation through its sustainable sourcing strategy. | National Bank of Canada
CIBC was recognized for the following AI solutions: Outstanding Use of AI in Customer Experience – Canada for CIBC AdvisorAssist, an AI-enabled solution that uses generative AI to capture and summarize detailed notes during client meetings and streamline follow-up documentation. The tool helps advisors reduce administrative charting time by up to 50 per cent, allowing them to spend more time with clients. | Most Innovative Application of AI by an Institution – Document Intelligence for DocuMind, an enterprise document intelligence platform powered by generative AI that helps streamline document processing, improve accuracy and accelerate workflows, while also supporting use cases such as faster lending decisions and fraud detection. | CIBC
In addition, BMO is donating $175,000 to support the victims of the tragedy at CFB Wainwright. BMO extends its deepest condolences to the families and communities grieving this profound loss. BMO's Canadian Personal & Business Banking, Commercial Banking and Capital Markets businesses provide tailored advice and banking services to the small and medium-sized businesses, large corporations and government departments and agencies that compose Canada's defence sector. To deliver executive coordination and to accelerate BMO's defence sector growth strategy, BMO has appointed Michael Bonner as its Enterprise Chair, Canadian Defence Sector. Mr. Bonner will also serve as the bank's liaison to government agencies and industry associations on defence-related financing, export credit and procurement matters. Mr. Bonner will continue to lead BMO's Canadian Personal and Business Banking Distribution group. BMO's Defence and Security Advisor, Major General (Ret.) David Fraser will report to Mr. Bonner. | BMO
Mr. Cox will report to Darryl White, Chief Executive Officer of BMO Financial Group, join the bank's Executive Committee and chair the U.S. Management Committee. His appointment is effective November 1, 2026. Mr. Cox joined BMO in 2010 and has held a number of senior Legal & Regulatory Compliance leadership roles, including Global Chief Regulatory Officer. Since 2022, he has served as U.S. General Counsel. Darrel Hackett has shared his intention to retire from his role as U.S. CEO after more than 22 years with BMO. Mr. Hackett will transition to a role of Executive Vice-Chair and Senior Advisor effective November 1. | BMO
It reflects the bank's ongoing commitment to advancing reconciliation and strengthening relationships with Indigenous Peoples, communities and businesses across Canada. At BMO, this work is guided by a belief that advancing reconciliation requires listening, learning and acting with purpose. Across the bank, colleagues are working to create meaningful opportunities for Indigenous clients, employees, entrepreneurs and communities through initiatives focused on financial progress, economic empowerment, education and relationship building. BMO's Indigenous Advisory Council, made up of Indigenous representatives from across Canada, plays an important role in helping shape and guide this work. | BMO
BMO, the official bank of the Canadian Defence Community, and the Institute of International Finance (IIF) will host the BMO and IIF Defence Finance Forum on October 22, 2026, at First Canadian Place, Toronto
The event will bring together senior leaders from government, finance, technology and industry to explore how Canada can mobilize private capital, including the build-out of critical infrastructure and supporting long-term growth across the country, while strengthening industrial capacity, and improving data security through greater collaboration among industry participants. The one-day forum will feature prominent voices from the DSR community, including Doug Guzman, Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency, and General Wayne Eyre, former Chief of the Defence Staff of Canada. Discussions are expected to touch on mobilizing private capital through innovative financing structures to support investment in defence, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, and industrial capacity; expanding Canada's industrial capacity for critical minerals, defence training, and sovereign space infrastructure; advancing AI leadership, data security and digital infrastructure; building supportive policy and regulatory frameworks for DSR investment; and strengthening collaboration among financial institutions, governments and industry participants. | BMO
Through this contribution, RBC becomes the inaugural supporter of the Ronald McDonald House Canada National Family Resiliency Fund, a newly established fund bringing RBC commitments together to help strengthen support for families with sick and injured children. This contribution also includes support for other projects, including the construction of a new House in BC. The Ronald McDonald House Canada National Family Resiliency Fund will turn RBC's three-year investment into action across three connected pillars: advancing health and wellness programs that help families navigate the emotional and practical realities of a child's illness; creating more accessible and environmentally sustainable spaces that allow more families to stay close to their child's care; and bringing RBC employees, clients and communities closer to Ronald McDonald House's mission through meaningful national and regional events. | RBC
The recognition stems from the JD Power 2026 Canada Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, which gathers feedback from thousands of retail banking customers nationwide. RBC earned an Overall Satisfaction score of 619, finishing nine points ahead of the Big Five average of 610 and holding the number one position among the Big Five across all seven dimensions measured in the study, including Digital Channels and Problem Resolution. The bank's eight-point improvement outpaced the industry average gain. RBC stands out most in Level of Trust, Account Offerings meeting my needs, and Allowing me to bank how and when I want, where it holds significant leads over the average. The study also points to continued momentum, with RBC building on its strengths in Digital Channels and Account Offerings, along with improvements in Online Chat, New Account Opening, Product/Fees, and Convenience. | RBC
The wins extend RBC Wealth Management's streak to three consecutive years for the Global category and six for North America. The Private Banker International Global Wealth Awards recognize institutions that deliver excellence across all dimensions of private banking. The awards recognize RBC Wealth Management's strategy of pairing a client-first approach with Canadian market leadership and continued expansion across North America and globally, reflecting its leadership across key markets: In Canada, RBC Wealth Management is the No. 1 retail mutual fund company and a leader in high-net-worth market share, with RBC Dominion Securities achieving the highest advisor rating among bank-owned investment dealers in Investment Executive's 2026 Brokerage Report Card for 20 consecutive years. In the U.S. and U.K., it ranks among the top six wealth management firms by assets under administration, with U.S. earnings growing 91 per cent over five years and a client base of 320,000 households. | RBC
Developed by EnStream, following a pilot with CIBC and Rogers, the platform aims to help participating institutions identify and prevent repeat fraud through a shared tool, adding a layer of protection for millions of Canadians. The pilot pioneered a new approach to sharing confirmed fraud intelligence between participating institutions and demonstrated the significant value that could be realized through broader cross-sector collaboration and scale. Participating institutions will contribute confirmed fraud intelligence to CSAFE. EnStream operates the platform which aggregates, standardizes, and enriches the contributed data using secure infrastructure and controls, while applying proprietary intelligence to help assess the continuity and current relevance of each record. CSAFE operates within a defined governance framework, and each participant independently uses the intelligence generated by the platform within its own fraud management processes and controls. CSAFE is a collective effort with participating institutions each contributing intelligence on confirmed fraud, and each drawing on a shared, broader view of confirmed fraud to strengthen their own defences. | Newswire
Brim's platform provides an intelligent, configurable operating model that brings together issuing, processing, servicing, loyalty campaigns, and customer engagement capabilities--enabling banks to embed cards and payments more seamlessly within their digital ecosystems. This deployment reflects a broader industry shift away from fragmented, legacy issuer stacks toward vertically integrated platforms that support faster product innovation, streamlined operations, and more connected customer journeys. Brim delivers an intelligent and fully configured, robust platform to launch and scale: Embeds credit and payments natively within Manulife Bank's digital ecosystem | Empowers enterprise-wide lifecycle customer engagement at scale | Accelerates product innovation and configurable launch capabilities | Drives operational efficiency via an integrated platform model. | Newswire
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It will help customers access mobile services in more than 120 countries as a way to help avoid costly roaming charges. This new perk is part of Manulife Travel Advantage, bringing together protection, connectivity and support to help customers travel with confidence. The new eSIM offering complements Manulife travel insurance coverage by providing convenient access to mobile data, enabling customers to use maps, messaging services and travel apps wherever their journey takes them. The solution can help address common travel frustrations such as expensive roaming fees, searching for local SIM cards or relying solely on public Wi‑Fi. Upon purchasing an eligible Manulife travel insurance policy, customers will receive an email with instructions to activate their complimentary eSIM membership through Travelgoogoo. | Manulife
Canada Life is combining human expertise and oversight with responsible AI through CaLi. The AI assistant, available in English and French, helps people find information quickly, while connecting those with more complex questions to the appropriate human support teams. CaLi is the only AI assistant from a major Canadian life insurer currently offering individual insurance application status information. CaLi was first introduced in 2025 to support plan member registration for workplace benefit plans. It was then expanded to answer questions related to health and savings benefits, and, in May 2026, was made available to advisors for process and workflow questions. Since launching, Canadians have had more than 186,000 conversations with CaLi, including approximately 170,000 with plan members and 16,000 with advisors. | Canada Life
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The new options cover different stages of credit assessment. Cashflow Analytics analyses up to 24 months of credits, debits, and balances to generate cash flow attributes for underwriting. Payment Risk Insights provides a score designed to help lenders predict repayment risk and identify early signs of repayment stress. Transaction Report offers at least six months of cleansed and categorised bank transaction data that lenders can use in their own decisioning models. Mastercard Open Finance solutions are provided by Finicity, a Mastercard company. Equifax Open Banking Solutions use consumer-permissioned cash flow data to bring bank transaction data, attributes, or scores into lending and portfolio management strategies. Lenders can choose between analysing detailed attributes and relying on ready-made scores, depending on their approach. The data is designed to fit into existing underwriting systems, with Equifax aiming to reduce integration work and shorten deployment times. | The Paypers
Through this integration, consumers gain access to three primary payment methods: immediate full payment, payment within 30 days, or splitting purchases into interest-free installments. For merchants, the integration is designed to bridge the gap between digital and physical storefronts, providing a unified checkout experience across every channel. A key technical feature of the partnership is that a fresh credit decision is performed for every individual transaction, rather than relying on a static credit line. This strategy highlights Klarna’s focus on building distribution partnerships as a primary vehicle for network growth, leveraging Fiserv’s established infrastructure to reach a broader merchant base without requiring bespoke integrations for every new partner. | Merchant’s Eye
Klarna’s Consumer FX tool is designed to streamline international e-commerce by providing transparent, upfront exchange rates within the Klarna app. Shoppers can now browse and purchase from the company’s network of 1.2 million merchants across 26 countries while paying in their home currency. The service currently supports major currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, SEK, NOK, DKK, CAD, AUD, NZD, and MXN. The price and exchange rate are displayed to the user before the transaction is finalized and remain visible in the app post-purchase to prevent statement surprises. For retailers, the implementation requires no additional technical integration or the setup of foreign bank accounts. Klarna manages the underlying FX disclosure, consumer consent, and regulatory compliance. | Merchant’s Eye
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Starling Bank solves the problem of slow, manual fraud reviews by deploying an Agentic Financial Crime Investigator. By embedding the AI natively within its core banking engine, Starling leverages real-time telemetry and historical data to eliminate integration lag and significantly accelerate financial crime detection. By building the Agentic Financial Crime Investigator directly into its proprietary core banking engine, Starling maintains absolute control over its data and models. The agent has unfettered access to historical behavior patterns and real-time telemetry, which are critical for identifying sophisticated fraud that external tools might miss due to data silos. | Fintech Finance News
The partnership, which began nearly one year ago, has reached a milestone of $500 million in processed cross-border payments. Nium’s infrastructure now supports more than 500 of Relay’s customers, the majority of which are small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).Through the Nium integration, Relay customers can collect, convert, send, and spend funds across borders. The system is designed to provide certainty throughout the transaction lifecycle, from the initial onboarding of the customer to the moment funds arrive in a recipient's bank account or digital wallet. By leveraging modern APIs, Relay aims to provide its users with a clear view of their money, moving away from the delays and uncertainty that have traditionally characterized international transfers. | Merchant’s Eye
Neo closed the $185 million facility and has increased the accordion to support upsizing to $250 million, expanding committed funding capacity for Neo's credit card receivables. The syndicate includes Canadian credit union participants Vancouver City Savings Credit Union (Vancity), Beem Credit Union, Alterna Savings and Credit Union Limited, and Innovation Federal Credit Union, underscoring growing credit union participation in Neo's funding platform and the mutual value of the partnership. ATB Financial structured and led the syndicate to deliver a scalable warehouse aligned with Neo's growth, providing capacity as Neo continues to originate and fund credit card receivables. | Newswire
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Aisle’s Prague headquarters, which hosts an engineering hub, will become Cohere’s Prague office, the company said. Aisle’s approximately 50 full-time employees will all join Cohere. Aisle CEO Ondřej Vlček will join Cohere as senior vice-president of a new cybersecurity unit called Cohere Cyber, while co-founder Jaya Baloo will become Cohere’s global chief information security officer. Aisle co-founder and CTO Stanislav Fort will become Cohere’s vice-president of AI security. Aisle develops AI products that identify and fix security weaknesses in critical software—a capability that Cohere is hoping to bring to its platform for large companies and governments. | BetaKit
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Returning Inovia limited partners (LPs) like the Business Development Bank of Canada, La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Fondaction, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, and Teralys Capital supported the first close. The strategy and size of Fund VI is expected to be “very similar” to its $325-million USD predecessor. It took Inovia six months to reach this $200-million USD mark, which puts the firm more than halfway toward its $325-million USD target for its latest fund, which it hopes to hit by the first quarter of 2027. Fund VI will focus on AI-native startups and emerging frontier technologies across cybersecurity, infrastructure, developer operations, energy, compute, robotics, and quantum. | BetaKit
The government will invest $1 billion across three streams to support Canadian venture capital, life sciences, and emerging fund managers, leveraging at least $2.1 billion in additional private investment. It also announced a $750 million Early and Growth Stage Investment Strategy, with funding for pre-seed/seed and later-stage companies to help them scale and remain in Canada. The government and BDC are seeking stakeholder input on the later-stage stream. | Canada
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PlanBase combines a purpose-built Canadian planning engine with an AI associate called Finn, designed to help advisors prepare, check, and explain financial plans. Founded in 2025, the bootstrapped company targets a workload familiar to financial planners: gathering client information, entering figures from statements and tax documents, checking projections, and turning the results into reports clients can understand. PlanBase combines document import with tools spanning retirement, estate, insurance, and individual pension plan planning. Finn helps populate and check plans, flag gaps, explore scenarios, and draft client reports, with advisors retaining final approval. | Fintech.ca
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TELUS Digital will serve as an implementation partner, introducing prospective and current enterprise clients to Parloa's AI agent platform and helping them put it into production at scale. Enterprises that choose to deploy Parloa can contract directly with the company for the platform itself and engage TELUS Digital for implementation, integration, change management, managed services and other professional services. Parloa's AI agents handle customer interactions such as authentication, bookings, payments and order inquiries from beginning to end, and escalate to a human agent when a conversation calls for high-touch care. As enterprises adopt agentic AI platforms across their customer service operations, TELUS Digital believes a single tool rarely covers every need and that enterprises benefit from matching the right capability to the right type of interaction. | PR Newswire
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