The Empire Club of Canada
Thursday, December 2, 2021
The Empire Club of Canada Presents:
Open Banking: An Essential Choice for Canadians
Open Banking is not about banks. It is about our society, consumer choice, data rights, personal enrichment and how we as Canadians wish to conduct our financial and digital lives. Freedom and choice are why governments in the UK, European Union, Singapore and Australia have already mandated Open Banking for their citizens.
Where does Canada stand and what would we gain as a society and individually from the adoption of Open Banking?
Join the Empire Club of Canada on December 2, 2021 for a virtual event featuring remarks from Andrew Moor, an Open Banking champion who happens to be the Chief Executive Officer of Equitable, Canada’s Challenger Bank™ – the country’s eighth largest independent Schedule I bank. He will describe the advantages of consumer-directed finance based on a worldview of this important topic.
Upon conclusion of his remarks, Mr. Moor will be joined by Kirsten Thompson, Partner and National Leader of Dentons’ Transformative Technologies and Data Strategy Group for a discussion moderated by Manjula Selvarajah, National Columnist to the CBC.
Moderator:
Manjula Selvarajah, National Columnist, CBC
Panelists:
Andrew Moor, President & CEO, Equitable Bank
Kirsten Thompson, Partner & National Lead, Transformative Technologies and Data Strategy Group, Dentons
*The content presented is free of charge but please note that the Empire Club of Canada retains copyright. Neither the speeches themselves nor any part of their content may be used for any purpose other than personal interest or research without the explicit permission of the Empire Club of Canada.*
*Views and Opinions Expressed Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the speakers or panelists are those of the speakers or panelists and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official views and opinions, policy or position held by The Empire Club of Canada.*
Andrew joined Equitable Bank (TSX: EQB) as Chief Executive Officer in 2007. Andrew’s focus in recent years has been in positioning Equitable Bank as “Canada’s Challenger
Bank”. Andrew has been establishing EQ Bank as a leading digital banking player, with an easy to use mobile app that offers a unique combination of payments functionality and great savings
rates.
Equitable Bank is Canada’s eighth largest schedule 1 bank with over $40 billion of assets under management. Equitable both partners with and is invested in a number of fintechs as
part of a broader vision of bringing innovation to the Canadian banking landscape. Andrew is a keen observer of the challenger and neo bank community around the world including through serving on the advisory board of the Open Banking Expo in the UK . He is interested in how banks can lever technology to improve the societies in which they operate.
He is a member of the Executive Council of the Canadian Bankers Association, Chairman of the Banks and Trust Companies Association. Andrew is a Director of Sleep Country Canada Inc. (TSX:ZZZ) and a member of the Smith School of Business Advisory Board at Queen’s University.
Manjula Selvarajah is a national columnist to CBC Radio’s 20-plus radio stations across the country.
An occasional radio host for CBC’s Ontario morning shows, she is a frequent emcee and moderator, with repeat speaking appearances at Elevate, Mars Discovery District and Collision. Formerly, she was on the executive team of a now acquired Toronto-based startup and holds a degree in Engineering from Queen’s University.
She is co‐founder of the non-profit Tamil Women Rising and sits on the boards of Jumpstart Refugee Talent and Scientists in School.
Kirsten Thompson is a partner in Dentons’ Toronto office and is the national lead of the Transformative Technologies and Data Strategy group, which deals with privacy, cybersecurity, CASL, information governance and other issues related to data and personal information. She has both an advisory and advocacy practice, and provides privacy, data security and data management advice to clients in a wide variety of industries.
Kirsten’s practice has a particular concentration in data-driven industries and disruptive technologies, and she is a leading practitioner in areas such as Fintech, Open Data/Open Banking and PSD2 implementation, vehicle telematics and connected infrastructure, Big Data/data analytics applications and enterprise data strategy. She also helps clients prepare for and manage information crises, such as data breaches, investigations and class actions, and has advised financial institutions, insurers, health care providers and providers of critical infrastructure on cybersecurity preparedness and response planning. She has been lead Canadian counsel on some of the largest North American data breaches and has been selected as preferred cybersecurity counsel by a number of Canada’s leading financial institutions and insurance providers.
In her advisory role, Kirsten assists clients in navigating the legal and privacy requirements of new products and technologies, and provides compliance advice both within and across jurisdiction, and advises clients on the increasingly significant informational elements of business transactions. She has extensive knowledge in “Open Banking” and the implications of PSD2 and related regulatory initiatives (e.g. competition, privacy, etc.) affecting the aggregation and use of customer information in the context of financial services.
She is a member of the Canadian government’s Advisory Committee on Open Banking, as well as a member of the Ontario government’s Digital and Data Task Force.