Fintechs Canada has appointed a new set of seven senior industry personnel to its Board of Directors, along with a new Chair. The Tech Factor finds out who’s in and who’s moved on in this report.
The Canadian financial technology companies’ industry association, Fintechs Canada, has appointed a new set of seven directors to its Board. The organization is a not-for-profit entity to collectively represent interests of the fintech players in the country. Accordingly, all the seven directors are senior leaders from the Canadian fintech industry.
Fintechs Canada is in fact the new name for Paytechs of Canada. Paytechs of Canada launched as an industry association in late 2019 to work with payments sector technology companies. However, in November 2022, it expanded its scope of work from just payments to the broader financial technology sector. Accordingly, it rebranded to the new name Fintechs Canada. At this time, the association claims to work on independent research, industry collaboration, policy advocacy, and stakeholder education. Further, it lists nanopay, Payroc, Celero, Paytm Canada, Payment Source, Peoples Trust, Portage and Koho as its founding members.
An email from The Tech Factor to the leadership team about the current membership scale and its team size went unanswered till the publication of this article. But the association has publicly announced the joining of several members to it over time. These members include Nuvei, Visa, Mastercard, Xero, Coinsmart, Equifax, Wealthsimple, Carta, Interchange Financial, Paysend, Truly Financial and Interac, among others.
New directors of Fintechs Canada to assume office right away
The new Directors of the Board will assume their roles with immediate effect for the 2024-25 period. The seven board members are:
- Andrew Graham, Co-Founder and CEO of Borrowell
- Laurence Cooke, Founder and CEO of nanopay
- Anne Butler, Chief Legal Officer at Peoples Group
- Jessica Oliver, Head of Government and Regulatory Relations at Wealthsimple
- Ben Harrison, Partner, Head of Partnerships and Policy at Sagard
- Dominique Samson, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Flinks
- Peter Aceto, Chief Banking Officer of Koho
While it’s not been explicitly mentioned, it seems that Graham, Cooke and Harrison were also part of the preceding board. That Board of Directors was announced in November 2022 along with the rebrand to Fintechs Canada. Further, Graham takes over as the new Chair of the Board. Cooke had originally been appointed Chairman of Fintechs Canada in 2020 and it’s not clear if he’s the outgoing Chair.
Appointed in February 2021, Alex Vronces serves as the association’s Executive Director. He joined from Payments Canada with prior experience in government advocacy, journalism and also payments technology policy.
“The appointment of our new board members marks a significant milestone for Fintechs Canada. Their expertise and leadership will be invaluable as we navigate the evolving landscape of financial technology and work towards our goal of making Canada a global leader in fintech.”
Alex Vronces, Executive Director of Fintechs Canada
Interestingly, Anne Butler was earlier Payments Canada’s chief external relations and legal officer. She seems to have taken over the board role from a colleague at People Group, Shirley Matthew, VP of Transformative Product Innovation. The other outgoing members of the board possibly include Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf (CEO and Founder, Flinks), Mark Ripplinger (President and CEO, Everlink Payment Services) and Kristen Wilson (SVP of Client Experience and Strategy, Celero Solutions).
Association to focus on open banking and payments modernization
Graham mentioned in the announcement that Canada has historically lagged behind in two crucial policy areas: open banking and payments modernization. He said that both areas are currently experiencing a lot of activity, and Fintechs Canada is playing its role.
In the release, the association claimed that its activities have resulted in significant progress on Canada’s fintech policy agenda. Among its achievements, it lists the implementation of a federal open banking framework, changes to legislation to increase access to payment systems, and reaffirmed commitments to launch Payments Canada’s real-time rail. Moreover, Fintechs Canada is is now looking forward to create a forward-thinking fintech policy agenda. The idea is to help spur ongoing innovation and growth in the industry as the federal election year draws near.
It’s worth noting that the association made a pre-budget submission to the federal government in February this year. In it, it requested that the government fulfill its promise to establish consumer-driven banking, as well as supporting Payments Canada’s initiative to construct the country’s first real-time payment system. In January, it urged the federal government to ensure exemption of commercial loans from the new maximum permissible rate of interest. It also called on the government to simultaneously concentrate on the market behaviour of predatory lenders.
