It was a year of many firsts for Equitable Bank (EQB), Canada’s seventh-largest lender in terms of assets: it was the bank’s most profitable year on record, with annual revenue surpassing $1 billion for the first time, and it tapped celebrities, sitcom Schitt’s Creek actors Dan and Eugene Levy, for the first time to promote its services.

Those are a couple of obvious highlights for a bank that is trying to make its way in a sector heavily dominated by the Big Six.

Chief executive Andrew Moor spoke to the Financial Post about Equitable’s performance in 2024, his outlook for 2025 and how Canada’s biggest banks need to be more welcoming of open banking, which the federal government further committed to implementing in its fall economic statement.

FP: EQB didn’t have the best fourth quarter, but it seemed like a good year overall for the bank. What do you think were the highlights?

Andrew Moor: This was the year that we really brought our brands, our consumer-facing brand, to the fore. Using Dan and Eugene Levy to promote EQ Bank, our digital platform, really has cemented us as a leading digital banking platform in Canada. We have great infrastructure under the hood, but having these sorts of iconic spokespeople for us has really elevated how people understand us.

And then we’re seeing a really good lift in people becoming customers of EQ Bank and we now have over half a million customers, more than $9 billion in deposits and we continue to bring innovation to the market. It’s the first time we have had revenue over $1 billion. That’s a mark of some success. It’s just a number, but it’s still a pretty big number.

FP: You told analysts on a call that your fourth-quarter results suffered due to loans linked to equipment financing. Could you elaborate on that?

AM: Yeah, so this is mostly long-haul transportation — trucks and trailers. That industry has gone through a bit of a tough period. In COVID, it was in very, very high demand. And then there’s been a bit of a kind of recession going on in long-haul transportation. So, lending in that business suffered some losses,

FP: How do you think the economy is going to behave in 2025?

AM: Things look relatively optimistic in the sense that interest rates are down. What’s important is the housing market. The housing market’s been pretty slow in the past couple of years because of the really high interest rates necessary to squeeze out inflation. But now we’ve done the job. Interest rates are going down; we’re seeing certainly much more activity in the housing market. It’s all very encouraging.

Obviously, the geopolitical backdrop may increase some uncertainty for the Canadian economy — something to worry about a bit. Generally, I feel sort of cautiously optimistic for next year.

FP: How do you think Donald Trump’s planned tariffs and Canada’s decision to reduce its immigration target might impact the economic outlook?

AM: No particular insights on the tariffs. How that will really play out is yet to be determined. It seems hard for me to imagine that things like oil exports will have that sort of tariff level on them. It’s just a big uncertainty. We’ll see how that plays out.

We’re in the business of providing financing for people to build housing for people to live in. And the reality is that the surge in immigration over the last few years has left us short on housing units. Even the new levels of immigration are actually pretty high by historical standards. We continue to be welcoming a lot of newcomers to Canada. And our business looks fine. In this regard, I don’t see that these changes are really going to make any difference to our business.

FP: You talked a bit about housing activity rising next year. Some analysts expect a mortgage war. Do you think Equitable can take advantage of that? What’s your take?

AM: Certainly, we’ve got some really strong franchises in lending to people who are self-employed, rather than new to Canada. We expect to do really well in those franchises, in those businesses. Reverse mortgages for Canadian seniors, as well, become more attractive in low interest rate environments. There are only two of us in the country that provide them. We’d expect to see good flows there, too. We can certainly play a significant role in financing home purchasing, home-buying activity next year.

FP: In some of your previous speeches, you sounded a bit tired about the delay in the arrival of open banking in Canada. Why do you think it is taking so long? Do you think Canadians haven’t been as supportive of the concept?

AM: It’s not something that I expect people on the street to be demanding: “We want open banking. We want it now.” But I think it is kind of important for the structure of the industry. I wouldn’t say I’m tired about it, but I’m a little frustrated that we haven’t delivered something that’s obviously good to do quicker. It will come. It still seems to be pushing along in Ottawa. Often, things kind of jump in and become priorities ahead of it, but it seems to enjoy general political support across the political parties in Ottawa. We will see it. It’s just taking longer than I think it really should.

FP: Why should consumers care about open banking? How does it benefit Canadians?

AM: What open banking does is it gives you the right to share your financial data with other commercial suppliers. You can imagine that somebody who might have a credit card, a mortgage and a bank account might actually have three different suppliers. It could be somebody entirely different who would be able to access all that information and provide valuable things to you.

Whether it’s just a way of managing your money, giving you some budgeting advice, or actually giving you better terms of credit because people would see that you’re responsible, that you handle your credit, and that might open up other opportunities for you. It’s those kinds of innovations that would come. It just makes it easier to manage your money and get better value from dealing with banks and others through being able to share this data.

FP: In terms of hurdles to open banking, do you think there has been a lot of criticism from the Big Six banking lobby and that’s what’s made it a bit difficult to arrive?

AM: It certainly hasn’t helped. There are real concerns that I acknowledge, such as some risks around data. Could it potentially increase fraud, for example? All those things I think are solvable, and it’s up to us in the industry to lean in and solve those problems, rather than use them as an excuse for not doing it at all, which is kind of how I sometimes perceive the arguments flowing out. We as bankers are quite capable of managing that risk. We should just get on and do it right.

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com

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