{"id":35781,"date":"2026-05-07T15:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/35781\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:59:12","slug":"finance-minister-pitches-digital-trade-mission-to-showcase-canadas-fintech-capabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/35781\/","title":{"rendered":"Finance Minister pitches digital trade mission to showcase Canada\u2019s fintech capabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne, pictured in Montreal last week, proposed launching a digital trade mission on Wednesday in Toronto.Christinne Muschi\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne has proposed holding a digital trade mission to pitch Canada\u2019s payments and fintech companies to global markets as Ottawa reroutes trade partnerships. <\/p>\n

Mr. Champagne pitched the mission to a room of financial services executives and business leaders at a conference held Wednesday by Payments Canada in Toronto. He suggested the trade mission could promote Canada\u2019s digital financial innovators to potential partners globally. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe often do these trade missions, which is more on the product side,\u201d Mr. Champagne said. \u201cA lot of our digital services, we can bring to the world. The world is craving for what Canada has to offer. And that might be something that we could \u2013 if people in the room want to come with us \u2013 we could create something.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ottawa seeks to bolster Canada\u2019s economy, Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> has put a focus on competition and innovation in the country\u2019s highly concentrated banking sector<\/a>, where six big banks dominate in market share. <\/p>\n

In a recent interview with The Globe and Mail, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions head Peter Routledge detailed plans<\/a> for Canada\u2019s banking regulator to loosen guardrails on launching a bank to introduce more competition into the system. <\/p>\n

Mr. Champagne said foreign markets see Canada as a stable, trustworthy partner, and global businesses and governments would be interested in the country\u2019s financial services innovators. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of countries are looking at being more resilient, and if you have Canadian solutions, Canadian innovation, we come with a high degree of trust when we go abroad,\u201d Mr. Champagne told reporters during a scrum Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we use that trust element to provide solutions to other countries? That would serve innovators here well, but also Canadian interests.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wealthsimple and Visa experiment with U.S. stablecoin to settle payments more quickly<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Champagne also told reporters that the federal government is currently recruiting for its new federal law enforcement agency<\/a> focused on financial crimes.<\/p>\n

The new agency will need experts in cryptology, quantum technology, AI and forensic accounting, Mr. Champagne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the best and brightest to join us. You know, this is policing in the 21st century \u2013 very different than traditional policing because the world is complex when it comes to financial crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ottawa announced legislation to establish the long-awaited Financial Crimes Agency last month, fulfilling a 2021 Liberal campaign promise.<\/p>\n

It has earmarked $352.7-million over five years to launch the new agency, starting in 2026-27, then $82.1-million annually after that.<\/p>\n

Canada is currently awaiting the outcome of a recent review of its financial crime regime by the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body that sets standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.<\/p>\n

That review took place<\/a> under new criteria that place more emphasis on how effectively a country enforces its anti-money-laundering rules, an area in which experts say Canada has struggled.<\/p>\n

Countries that are found to be deficient in managing financial crime risks are added to the FATF\u2019s grey list and subjected to increased monitoring, a move that can have serious negative consequences for a country, for instance by curtailing foreign investment.<\/p>\n

During an interview, Mr. Champagne said he doesn\u2019t expect Canada to be grey-listed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey see us being serious,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I cannot presuppose \u2013 it\u2019s for them to make their own assessment \u2013 but they see us, and me, being very focused on that,\u201d Mr. Champagne said, noting that Canada is working with international partners to tackle what is a transnational issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2018ve been engaging with our U.S. partners, our U.K. partners, our Italian partners and other partners around the world. They know I\u2019m on it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne, pictured in Montreal last week, proposed launching a digital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,483],"class_list":{"0":"post-35781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-nodelphi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}