Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, pictured in Montreal last week, proposed launching a digital trade mission on Wednesday in Toronto.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has proposed holding a digital trade mission to pitch Canada’s payments and fintech companies to global markets as Ottawa reroutes trade partnerships.
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’s digital financial innovators to potential partners across the globe.
“We often do these trade missions, which is more on the product side,” Mr. Champagne said. “The world is craving for what Canada has to offer. And that might be something that we could – if people in the room want to come with us – we could create something.”
As Ottawa seeks to bolster Canada’s economy, Prime Minister Mark Carney has put a focus on competition and innovation in the country’s highly concentrated banking sector, where six big banks dominate in market share.
In a recent interview with The Globe and Mail, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions head Peter Routledge detailed plans for Canada’s banking regulator to loosen guardrails on launching a bank to introduce more competition into the system.
Mr. Champagne said foreign markets see Canada as a stable, trustworthy partner, and global businesses and governments would be interested in the country’s financial services innovators.
“A 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,” Mr. Champagne told reporters during a scrum Wednesday evening.
“How can we use that trust element to provide solutions to other countries? That would serve innovators here well, but also Canadian interests.”
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Mr. Champagne also told reporters that Ottawa is currently recruiting for its new federal law enforcement agency focused on financial crimes.
The new agency will need experts in cryptology, quantum technology, AI and forensic accounting, Mr. Champagne said.
“We need the best and brightest to join us. You know, this is policing in the 21st century – very different than traditional policing because the world is complex when it comes to financial crime,” he said.
Ottawa announced legislation to establish the long-awaited Financial Crimes Agency last month, fulfilling a 2021 Liberal campaign promise.
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.
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.
That review took place 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.
Countries that are found to be deficient in managing financial crime risks are added to the task force’s grey list and subjected to increased monitoring. Such a move can have serious negative consequences for a country, for instance by curtailing foreign investment.
During an interview after the Wednesday scrum, Mr. Champagne said he doesn’t expect Canada to be grey-listed.
“They see us being serious ... I mean, I cannot presuppose – it’s for them to make their own assessment – but they see us, and me, being very focused on that,” Mr. Champagne said, noting that Canada is working with international partners to tackle what is a transnational issue.
“I‘ve been engaging with our U.S. partners, our U.K. partners, our Italian partners and other partners around the world. They know I’m on it,” he said.