Fintechs Canada has submitted its recommendations to the Department of Finance Canada as part of the federal government’s consultations in advance of Budget 2026.
Canada’s financial sector remains highly concentrated, limiting choice and raising costs for consumers and small businesses. Building on the progress made in Budget 2025, Fintechs Canada is calling on the federal government to accelerate the implementation of reforms already underway and address the remaining barriers to competition.
Fintechs Canada’s six recommendations for Budget 2026 are:
- Advance the implementation of key financial sector reforms to strengthen competition, improve consumer outcomes, and support economic growth.
- Implement a Consumer-Driven Banking framework that achieves its pro-competition objectives through enabling broad participation, establishing a sponsorship model for fintechs, reducing duplicative accreditation and compliance burden, and accelerating write-access.
- Improve access to capital for Canada’s small businesses by reforming eligibility and designation processes for government-backed SME financing programs, such as the Canada Small Business Financing Program (CSBFP), to enable practical participation by qualified non-deposit-taking lenders.
- Enable a competitive Canadian dollar stablecoin framework that protects Canada’s monetary sovereignty and fosters viable business models.
- Address structural barriers to competition in mobile payments by ensuring fair and non-discriminatory access to essential technologies, including NFC.
- Amend the Income Tax Regulations to allow eligible decentralized digital assets in TFSAs and RRSPs, ensuring consistent tax treatment across comparable asset classes and supporting long-term savings.
Together, these measures would help strengthen competition, improve choice and affordability, expand access to capital, and support innovation and productivity across Canada’s economy.
To read the full submission, click here.
