Thank you.
I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear again.
Wealthsimple is Canada's leading financial innovator. We serve more than four million Canadians and we hold $150 billion in assets on their behalf. More than one in five Canadians aged 18 to 40 use Wealthsimple, and that reach gives us insight into a generation that policy-makers are trying to reach and who are very present in the issues that this committee considers.
Several reforms are now within reach. These reforms would give Canadians genuine control over their money through the ability to move their money where they want, when they want, without penalty or delay, as well as give them control over their financial data, with the ability to have a full picture of their financial situation and the ability to consider options to improve decision-making.
I'll touch on three options raised in our pre-budget submission: a ban on investment account transfer fees, a real-time payment rail and an open banking framework. These are interconnected. They are standards and infrastructure that exist in every peer country, countries that also care about stability, security and productivity.
The most urgent of these, in our view, are account transfer fees.
How much should it cost for a Canadian to move their savings from one provider to a better one? The industry's answer at the moment is $150 per account. Wealthsimple's answer is zero. We absorb the $2.20 it costs us to process an outgoing transfer.
This is what it means in practice for a 24-year-old earning an average wage who's done the right things. She has opened a TFSA, an RRSP and an FHSA, and she saves diligently. She finds a provider that better suits her needs and decides to move her accounts. It costs $150 to transfer a single account, which is more than 2% of the average TFSA balance at that age. She's charged $450 in total to switch over, and if her former institution is in no hurry, she may wait months for that money to arrive.
Last year, 28% of inbound transfers to Wealthsimple took longer than 20 business days to settle. The slowest 10% took more than five months. Shopping around and changing financial providers is a fundamentally optimistic decision. It means you believe there is something better. That inexplicably slow and expensive process erodes trust and breeds cynicism.
Since budget 2025 announced a ban on these fees, Wealthsimple clients alone have been charged nearly $50 million by other institutions, and we estimate that Canadians are paying more than $1 million per day. Every day of delay has a price, which is paid by people saving for a first home, for retirement or for their children's education.
Second, on payments modernization, for a small business owner who today waits days for a payment to clear or pays a steep fee to settle a foreign transaction, real-time payments and stablecoins change that calculus. The infrastructure is ready to make things easier for that small business owner. What matters now is on-schedule implementation.
Finally, as others have mentioned, none of this succeeds without trust. Financial fraud is a serious and growing problem, and Canadians deserve better protection. We support the creation of the national anti-fraud strategy and the financial crimes agency, and in particular the attention being paid to all regulated entities, including digital and social media platforms, where most financial scams begin.
We know our clients are engaged too. Every time we launch new security features—for example, the ability to add a layer of friction in an ID verification when you send an e-transfer that is not from your work or home—we see strong uptake in those measures. Technology gives our clients options, and they avail themselves of them.
In short, the financial system Canadians deserve is within reach. What we need now is the resolve to finish the job.