Wealthsimple launches credit card, new line of credit to challenge big banks

Wealthsimple Inc. Proclaimed its number one credit entry scorecard and a run along of credit Wednesday as it ramps up efforts to challenge the dominance of Canada's big banks.

The expansion also includes the additions of mobile cheque deposits, wire transfers and bank drafts to the chequing account it launched in 2020 when it started pushing toward the full financial suite offered by banks.

Wealthsimple, which started more than a decade ago with a focus on automated investment management, has long emphasized that it doesn't want to become an actual bank, and chief commercial officer Paul Teshima says it still has no plans to become one.

"What we want to do is continue to lean into the fact that because we don't have a banking licence, we can do interesting and different use cases," he said.

He pointed to Wealthsimple's arrangement with 10 banks to hold its clients' deposits, giving them Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. Coverage of up to $1 million, as one of those benefits.

Wealthsimple's new offerings Wednesday include its credit card with two per cent cash back, while it says its line of credit will have rates as low as 4.45 per cent when it launches by the end of the year. (The current prime rate is 4.95 per cent.)

New credit card customers will not be charged additional conversion or FX fees when spending money in foreign currencies.

Wealthsimple also plans to offer its clients the ability to use their investment account balances as collateral for lines of credit.

Not everything is purely digital. Clients will also be able to have bank drafts shipped at no cost to recipients.

It's also working on a feature where users can still write traditional paper cheques using the app, with the financial institution printing and delivering the cheque to the recipient.

Wealthsimple is also hinting at a pilot project being launched in the Toronto area where actual cash will be delivered to a client's door.

"For those urgent moments, we're going to send cash right to your doorstep, similar to Uber Eats," explained Teshima, noting the pilot may eventually include U.S. Dollar delivery.

But even as Wealthsimple adds features, its unclear how much market share the company will be able to take from the Big Six banks that include RBC, TD, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank and National Bank.

Canadians are known to be reluctant to switch away from the big banks — the six control more than 90 per cent of bank assets under management.

"Our biggest competition are the banks," Teshima said, but he noted there's reason to think there's demand for alternatives, pointing to the results of a survey Wealthsimple commissioned from Angus Reid that showed a quarter of respondents were dissatisfied with the current banking system, and 38 per cent had considered leaving their bank in the past year. 

He said Wealthsimple has already shown it's possible to get people to move their retirement accounts, something some were previously skeptical about.

"What I think what we've shown is that with a lot of investment in technology and working our clients, we make that process as seamless as possible, and so we're taking a very similar approach with the chequing account."

He expects strong demand for the credit card Wealthsimple has been rolling out in test phases over the past year, as it's by far the most requested product requested by clients.

The company has shown there's demand for its combined spending and savings account as well, with about a quarter of its more than three million customers already signed up for one.

Activity in higher-interest accounts boomed in recent years as rates topped four per cent, but Teshima says there's still demand even as rates decline.

"Chequing is the foundation, but then you can quickly move it seamlessly to wherever you want to get a higher yield, is the beauty of having sort of one platform together."

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