Already Ontario’s largest credit union, Meridian is getting set to launch a new national bank in an effort to expand beyond the province and compete against Canada’s biggest lenders.

The credit union hopes to start offering online and mobile-based banking services outside the province in 2018. Meridian Bank will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the credit union.

“We plan to launch as a full-service retail offer,” Meridian CEO Bill Maurin told BNN in an interview. “So basically, our value proposition is to bring the convenience of the direct banks like a Tangerine, the breadth of the Big Five, with the service experience, the pricing philosophy and the overall advice and value proposition of Meridian credit union.”

Maurin said that Meridian’s growth in Ontario and its products has led the credit union to believe it can compete against the country’s Big Five banks, which include Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. 

While the country’s incumbent banks have faced some branch closures and layoffs, Maurin said Meridian is going in an opposite direction.

“We’ve been opening branches as we continue to expand our physical market presence and build brand,” he said. “Our value proposition has really been resonating with folks in Ontario – so that’s great. And as we look at how financial services are changing, the impact of technology and how it breaks down financial barriers to some degree, it became clear we needed to take Meridian’s value proposition national.”

Maurin also said that the credit union has invested in “leading technology” such as the ability to deposit cheques remotely, and offering the first cloud-based mobile payment solution for Android.

“We don’t position ourselves as a fintech, but nor do we see fintechs as a threat,” he said. “We actually see it as an opportunity and a good wake-up call to the industry to make sure we as an industry are really focusing on serving Canadians as best we can, and introducing technology that makes their life easier.”

Meridian was created in 2005 and has 270,000 members in Ontario and 81 branches across the province.

--With files from the Canadian Press