EQ Bank is beginning the next phase of its growth strategy after completing its acquisition of PC Financial, a deal that significantly expands its customer base and strengthens its position in Canada’s digital banking sector. The lender is now focused on integrating millions of new customers while broadening its product offerings through a long-term partnership with Loblaw.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Chadwick Westlake, CEO of EQ Bank, about the integration timeline, plans to preserve the customer experience during the transition, the opportunities created by the PC Optimum partnership and how the acquisition supports the bank’s long-term growth ambitions.
Key Takeaways
- EQ Bank expects the integration of PC Financial to take 12 to 18 months as it transitions customers and products onto a unified digital platform.
- The acquisition expands the bank’s offerings with credit cards, insurance products and access to the PC Optimum ecosystem, creating new opportunities to deepen customer relationships.
- Management says retaining PC Financial employees and leadership was a priority to preserve expertise in credit cards, insurance and customer experience.
- The bank plans to remain digital-first while expanding its physical presence through PC Financial pavilions, ATMs and an omnichannel customer strategy.
- EQ Bank says its immediate priority is executing a smooth integration before pursuing further growth opportunities in Canada’s banking sector.
Read the full transcript below:
ROGER: EQ Bank is on a mission to cement itself as Canada’s challenger bank. The company has now completed its acquisition of PC Financial, expanding its reach to serve nearly four million Canadians and the 18 million members of the PC Optimum program. Here to tell us more is Chadwick Westlake, CEO of EQ Bank. Chadwick, thank you very much for joining us today.
CHADWICK: Thanks for having me, Roger.
ROGER: Are you having a chance to breathe now with everything that’s been going on? I imagine you’ve been busy until yesterday. You’re still going to be busy, but busy until yesterday.
CHADWICK: We were, yeah. It was a great Canada Day for us, a great Canada Day, importantly, for Canadians. And so, great to complete the deal.
ROGER: Yeah, you chose Canada Day on purpose, didn’t you?
CHADWICK: This is about Canada. Every dollar we generate, we put back into Canada. This is about Canadian jobs and better value for Canadian consumers.
ROGER: All right, and this whole deal came together quicker than most, didn’t it?
CHADWICK: It would be, I believe, Roger, the fastest in Canadian history, and that says something about the federal government’s focus on more choice and more competition for everyday Canadians.
ROGER: All right, so imagine you popped some champagne yesterday. Today it’s work. What’s the focus today? What are you doing first?
CHADWICK: First is focusing on serving our customers. PC customers, business as usual. We’re here to serve them and then bring them more choice. Same thing with EQ Bank customers. We have a lot more products. We have the loyalty program now. We’re focused, Roger, on remaking banking so every Canadian gets ahead every day. So, we’re going to integrate it really well, take care of everyone really well and bring a lot more choice.
ROGER: And how do you see that integration unfolding?
CHADWICK: It’s going to take some time. This is a very big deal. I think before the deal earlier this week we started with 800,000 customers. We’re going to end the week with just about four million customers and become more of a mainstream name in Canada, truly about bringing more choice for everyday Canadians and creating more jobs for Canadians. So, we’re going to take probably the next 12 to 18 months to make sure we do it well. This is just too big to rush. We’re going to take our time, integrate digitally, bring the products together, offer more products to existing customers and grow this very thoughtfully. So, all eyes on the integration.
ROGER: You’re bringing in $4.4 billion in credit card receivables. That portfolio is a challenge you haven’t had before. What’s it going to be like trying to work with that?
CHADWICK: We have the right team, so we preserved all the people at PC Financial. They all work with us now. This was about Canadian jobs and growing Canadian jobs, so they’re all there. That’s the beauty of it. This combines complementary people and capabilities, so we’ll be comfortable with that. I think the portfolio is very high quality as well. This is not a subprime-quality portfolio. This is a great, high-quality, prime, super-prime portfolio. So, we’re going to intend to grow it. We’re very comfortable with our exposure on it.
ROGER: And how important was keeping the execs from the other side? Because a lot of the time you see companies want to bring in their own people. Why are you doing it differently this time?
CHADWICK: Such a special deal in every way, not only what we’re doing for Canadians through more rewards and better value, but growing jobs. Canadians are struggling, right? Look at the unemployment rate. Look what’s happening in the country. We’re about building this country. It’s very important to me that we preserve those jobs, and it’s also different products, right? We’re not the experts, per se, in credit cards. They are. We also bring in an insurance company, PC Insurance, so they’re the experts in that. So, they all come together as very, very important. And we took great care of them. We welcome a new chief risk officer from there, new heads of customer experience, analytics and cards. So, they all have jobs. This has been pretty exceptional and special that way.
ROGER: Okay, how do things change after a 17 per cent year-over-year drop in Q2 adjusted earnings? Does that change how you’re approaching everything? Is that an added headwind to you?
CHADWICK: For us, well, a lot has changed over the past year. I’m less about looking in the past and more about looking forward. So, I’m very comfortable now that we have actually just about doubled our revenue, more than tripled our non-interest revenue, again. Our customers grew about four times. We added billions of new assets, and importantly, though, we can stop, pause and reflect on what our new customers need the most. So, there’s a great opportunity to do well first for Canadians, for jobs, and then we can reward our shareholders very well. Here, we believe this will be accretive to EPS and ROE, and there’s all kinds of opportunity to offer more products at a great price for these customers.
ROGER: And you have built-in opportunities with Loblaw and the PC Optimum program. How do you see that? How do you see getting those Optimum clients and using that?
CHADWICK: It’s the largest and, I think, most effective loyalty program in Canada, as you said, with more than 18 million Canadians, and this is very important to Loblaw. So, we’re going to be all over the place in Canada. EQ Bank will, over the next 12 to 18 months, become omnipresent in Canada, whether you’re at a Loblaw banner store, Shoppers, at an Esso, wherever there’s PC Optimum. EQ Bank is going to be there, and it’s important that this is a partnership. So, you also saw, Roger, we welcomed Galen Weston and Richard Dufresne on board. This is very important to Loblaw, to us mutually, that this is very successful. So, with that 18 million-member Optimum program, we will have the chance to offer them some products, some great high-interest everyday savings accounts, the cards. There’s a lot more we can do for them and give them choice and, importantly, get more PC Optimum into those people’s hands because they can get more groceries, more gas and more rewards that matter for people. So, it’s a real mutual opportunity.
ROGER: Now, do you see yourself becoming bricks and mortar, then?
CHADWICK: No, I think we’re going to be whatever customers need most. So, we’re going to be where customers are, get closer to the customer. If they are in a store, we will have reimagined pavilions where you can actually stop and talk to an EQ representative. We’ll still be digital first, digital- and AI-first. We’ll have our contact centres. ATMs will be omnipresent, but not bricks and mortar, per se. It’s more of a hybrid, omnichannel setup, which makes us one of the only challenger banks in the world with that type of channel distribution.
ROGER: Okay, and where do you see this going next? What’s next for you?
CHADWICK: First, integrate, do this really well. We have four million people to take care of. That is such a privilege, and it’s such a big growth curve for EQ. So, we’re going to first take care of this, integrate as effectively as possible, make sure it’s a seamless experience, get more great value and more products into these customers’ hands, and then we continue to grow. We think there’s an addressable market significantly above our current customer base, so we want to become a visible choice for those everyday Canadians, to be the number one challenger bank in this country. Roger, I’ve noticed sometimes you have fintechs that want to really change the system, almost destroy banking in a healthy way. Then you have the existing banks that want to preserve the way things are. We want to improve it. We want to give more choice. We want to remake banking so every Canadian gets ahead every day.
ROGER: All right. Thank you, as always, for joining us. We appreciate it, Chadwick.
CHADWICK: Thank you, Roger.
ROGER: Thanks very much. That was Chadwick Westlake, CEO of EQ Bank.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the July 2, 2026 interview with Chadwick Westlake are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
