Fintech Regulatory Developments: 2020 Year In Review

As anticipated in our 2019 year in review, there were significant and notable developments in the Canadian Fintech industry in 2020. These occurred in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated the growth of some segments of the Fintech industry (notably for example, point-of-sale ("buy now, pay later") lenders, businesses facilitating digital onboarding/ ecommerce and/or cashless transactions), while presenting challenges for others (such as small business lenders and travel focused lenders). In contrast to the approach taken in some other countries (in particular, the United States), Fintech entities in Canada did not participate in deploying pandemic government relief to businesses in Canada.