The St. Catharines-based financial services cooperative, with a digital banking subsidiary called a motusbank that launched in 2019, has been investing in technology and working with other credit unions to prepare for open banking, which will require consumer financial data to be shared securely with third-party service providers including fintechs.
Canada’s Advisory Committee on Open Banking completed a report last August, calling on the federal government to oversee the design, testing and accreditation of an open banking system that will allow customer data to be shared efficiently and safely between financial services providers, whether they are large banks or financial technology upstarts.Article content
Still, Gilfoy, who took the top job at Meridian after nearly eight years with Vancouver City Savings Credit Union including four as CEO of subsidiary Vancity Community Investment Bank, said the credit union structure gives Meridian a bit of an edge over big banks when it comes to sharing data across the financial landscape.Article content
The big banks, by contrast, have legacy internal technology systems built up over decades and many more customers across the country.