Environics Research

Yesterday I shared Part 1 of this series, looking at the EQ Bank | Equitable Bank + President's Choice Financial deal and the bigger pattern behind it: Canada is reorganizing banking around ecosystems, not products. Today, Part 2 shifts the focus to something just as important: "Do Canadians actually want to live inside these ecosystems?" To answer that, I looked at social values across three groups — EQ Bank users, PC Financial users, and PC Optimum members. They may all sit in the same ecosystem soon, but they don’t approach it with the same mindset. 🔹 EQ Bank users lean tech-forward and convenience-driven. 🔹 PC Financial users look for authenticity, ethics, and strong boundaries. 🔹 PC Optimum members blend practical rewards with identity and values. Those differences matter. Ecosystems only work when the people inside them feel understood. Then I dig into the two friction points that will decide who earns permission: 🔹 Data ownership — many Canadians still assume their bank owns their financial data. 🔹 Open banking — read access comes first, write access comes later, and trust must keep pace with capability. If ecosystems are the future, trust is the gate. 👉 Part 2: The Doorway Is Built. Now Comes the Permission. https://lnkd.in/gnhWDTdD #CanadianFintech #FinancialServices #ConsumerInsights #OpenBanking #DigitalBanking #SocialValues #Loyalty #Ecosystems Chadwick Westlake, CFA Michael Cebo Cathy Ly Bhavesh Shukla Gayatri Gandhi Daljit Singh Somali Raturi Janet Lin Michelle Mohabir Palmer Lina F. Rebecca Ho Martha Bushell Dan Broten Fintechs Canada Adriana Vega Dana El Chaer

EQ Bank | Equitable Bank buying President's Choice Financial made me pause. Not because it was a surprise, but because it felt like a signal. When you put this deal beside RBC–HSBC, National Bank of Canada–Canadian Western Bank, and Laurentian Bank’s split exit, a pattern shows up fast: Canada is not just consolidating banks. We are reorganizing financial services around ecosystems. In Part 1, I zoom out on the four deals and what they are really chasing: loyalty rails, daily habit, and data-driven value loops. The EQB–PC move is a clear case in point. EQ Bank gets something it could never build alone: a mainstream doorway through PC Optimum, including over two million active PC Mastercard accounts and roughly $32B in annual card spend. This isn’t just about cards. It’s about who owns the front door to everyday financial behaviour. If you want the bigger picture behind the headline, Part 1 is here. https://lnkd.in/gzjAJCSV #CanadianFintech #FinancialServices #Banking #Ecosystems #Loyalty #OpenBanking #DigitalBanking #Payments #ConsumerInsights #Innovation Chadwick Westlake, CFA Michael Cebo Cathy Ly Bhavesh Shukla Gayatri Gandhi Daljit Singh Somali Raturi Janet Lin Michelle Mohabir Palmer Lina F. Rebecca Ho Martha Bushell Dan Broten Fintechs Canada Adriana Vega Dana El Chaer

We asked Canadians where they’re comfortable seeing AI in the healthcare system and what outcomes they want to see if it is used at all. Two things stood out from the data: comfort with AI rises when people feel confident in their own health and believe the system is stable and it drops when they feel their health, or the system, is in crisis. That means the path to buy-in on AI in healthcare isn’t just better algorithms; it’s better trust and confidence building: • raising AI literacy in plain language • leading with human oversight, not “AI-first” hype • putting clinicians and patient advocates out front, not politicians • tailoring communication to people’s values and mindsets, not just their age or diagnosis How do you feel about AI being used in healthcare? https://lnkd.in/gQ3bZXeB #DigitalHealthWeek #DigitalHealth #AIinHealthcare #HealthcareInsights

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