EQ Bank taps 'Schitt’s Creek' duo to battle Canadian stranglehold
A small Canadian lender is muscling its way into the banking big leagues — and that’s not an easy place to be.
Equitable Bank Inc. is now Canada’s seventh-largest lender after targeting businesses that its rivals shunned. The firm’s digital account offering, EQ Bank, was recently promoted by ‘Schitt’s Creek’ father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy in television spots aired during the Oscars and Super Bowl. Earnings have grown at a rapid clip, and it even swept in to win a surprising acquisition last year.
Such momentum is no mean feat in a banking system where six financial giants control as much as 90 per cent of the country’s personal accounts. Canada is also a laggard when it comes to the open-banking concept, which makes it easier for consumers and businesses to securely transfer financial data from big banks to fintechs and online providers. That’s partly why most young Canadians still use the first bank account they ever opened, despite fees and low interest rates.
Cue Equitable Bank, which launched its high-interest digital savings accounts in 2016 to disrupt that status quo. It now has US$119 billion in assets under management, more than 600,000 customers and big ambitions for growth.
“Why aren’t there more banks that look like this in Canada?” Andrew Moor, chief executive officer of Equitable Bank’s owner, EQB Inc., said in an interview. “The barriers to entry are really challenging.”
Moor has been a vocal proponent of open banking, arguing that customers should be able to shop for the best products. Canada says an open-banking framework is coming — but it’s years overdue, Moor said.
That hasn’t been the only hurdle to EQB’s ambition to gain ground on larger rivals. For one, it historically relied heavily on brokered
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