Questrade Financial Group, known to Canadians as an online trading platform, says it has been approved to launch a new bank in Canada.
The company said it’s received approval to open Questbank by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), the federal regulator for financial institutions.
The approval was years in the making, according to Questrade CEO and president Edward Kholodenko. The company first applied for the bank licence in 2019.
“This is a monumental step in furthering our mission to help Canadians become much more financially successful and secure. Following the successful path forged over Questrade’s 26-year history, we are thrilled to expand our offering to introduce much needed competition to the Canadian banking landscape,” Kholodenko said in a statement.
Kholodenko says that while he’s not ready to share details yet, Questrade will be working toward a full suite of services for its bank. The company, which has millions of Canadian customers, expects to have more details to share in early 2026.
Gen Z is proving to be more financially engaged than the previous generations and diving into investing earlier through RRSPs and TFSAs, according to Statistics Canada and a TD Bank survey, often thanks to finance becoming more digestible through influencers.
Questbank will be a Schedule I bank — a fully-fledged domestic bank rather than a subsidiary of a foreign one, in the same class as Canada’s six major institutions (Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada and TD Bank).
The move comes as other fintech companies also push more into the banking space, especially Wealthsimple Inc., which has been steadily expanding its offerings to now include chequing accounts, credit cards and mortgages.
Questrade’s move is a bit different, however, according Marius Zoican, an associate professor of finance and Canada Research Chair in Financial Technology at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business. Wealthsimple isn’t a bank itself, but instead offers financial services by partnering with Schedule I banks and piggybacking off of their banking abilities, he said.
By having bank status itself, Questrade will have more flexibility to offer services as it wishes and possibly at better rates than fintechs that are reliant on bank partners, according to Zoican. That said, he adds Wealthsimple might have something of an upper hand because it was able to offer banking services sooner by partnering.
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Regardless, Zoican says the extra competition in the banking sector is a good thing — as is the opportunity for Canadians to streamline their finances, rather than keeping their money in a big six bank and transferring it to a digital trading platform like Questrade in order to invest.
“[Customers] were stuck between these two worlds. And I think many people would like to have integrated services where they can deal with one institution, they can transfer money [easily] from checking and savings to investments,” Zoican said. “I think this, especially for younger generations that are digital first … is a very welcome development.”
