Finance committee  All registered accounts are really popular. When you look at the decrease in pension coverage in the workplace, when you look at the delay of home ownership and when you look at these wonderful but very distinct new products and the burden of both retirement saving and home ownership saving shifting to the individual, we're empowering folks to understand how to maximize benefits and increase the choice they have between service providers.

Finance committee  That's right.

Finance committee  Sure. Thanks for the question. I think you need to look at other jurisdictions. No jurisdiction that has introduced open banking has ever pulled it back or withdrawn it. All they've done is expand it. If you look at consumer switching rates, comparison shopping and changing the financial service provider that can tailor to your specific and unique circumstances, in every other jurisdiction they increase through open banking.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the committee for this invitation. My name is Jessica Oliver. I'm head of government and regulatory affairs at Wealthsimple, a financial services company trusted by over three million Canadians, including one in five adults under 40. I'm privileged to work with over 1,000 colleagues across the country.

Finance committee  Thank you for the interest in open banking. Yes, certainly. Several countries have introduced open banking. For example, the U.K. is now in its second iteration and others are in their third. With both RTR and open banking, there is not a single country in the world that has introduced them and then removed them, and we take comfort in that.

Finance committee  Yes. The data from the U.K. is based on their 2019 data and, yes, it was 18 billion pounds across individuals and businesses. It's exactly as you said. One of the best Canadian fintechs, Borrowell, allows renters to build their [Technical difficulty—Editor] or build credit by demonstrating proof of on-time monthly rental payments.

Finance committee  It's fall.

Finance committee  I believe they made a commitment in their platform for open banking in 2023.

Finance committee  Sure. We did include that in our submission, and I noted that my counterpart at Questrade, who presented last month, also shared that quote, so it very much represents a shared sentiment across our sector. A global review of real-time payments that was undertaken by ACI and looked across the globe is reported to have found that “government mandates are almost a basic requirement for banks and payments firms to move to real-time payments, and governments are realizing that real-time...can help boost their economies.”

Finance committee  It would mean that when money is moved, it would land in real time. It would be data-rich payments that would provide end-to-end traceability, which can help reduce fraud and better enable investigations. When you look at the delivery of emergency relief benefits by government, for example, or even just transactions between businesses through supply chains, it would mean that businesses and individuals could put their money to work immediately upon receiving it.

Finance committee  I don't have a number to share. In our submission, we referenced the impact on cash flow for businesses. I believe that in 2019 a report by Deloitte in the U.K. found that 63% of businesses hold back capital to mitigate challenges with cash flow, when really, if they were able to count on real-time payments, they could deploy that capital in other ways.

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you to the committee for having me. My name is Jessica Oliver. I'm head of government relations at Wealthsimple, a financial services company headquartered in Toronto and serving more than three million Canadians. One in five Canadians 18 to 40 years of age are Wealthsimple clients.