Earlier this month, WealthONE was acquired by a consortium of traders led by Globalive, the enterprise agency based by Canadian entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera, and appointed a wholly new board.
Taking a web page from the Equitable playbook, the Schedule I financial institution believes it has discovered an underserved area of interest in Canadian lending: alt-A debtors similar to entrepreneurs, contractors and newcomers in search of custom-built options.
“We all know by way of our personal knowledge that our buyer in Canada has the next web price, the next revenue and a greater credit score rating than the everyday prime borrower, however they don’t include a T4, in order that they’re more durable to take care of and more durable to approve,” WealthONE President and CEO Paul Leonard informed Canadian Mortgage Traits.
“That’s our space of experience; we’re actually good at it, and that’s why we’ve emerged out of nowhere within the final couple of years to have a very good illustration from brokers throughout the nation,” he added.
Early rising pains and a pivot to brokers
Based in late 2016, WealthOne was initially created to serve the wants of Chinese language immigrants to Canada.
“The financial institution stumbled out of the gate,” says Leonard, who joined as CFO in 2018. “However the merchandise we had been providing had been engaging to a wider viewers than solely the Chinese language Canadian group.”
After being promoted to CEO in 2020, Leonard, alongside along with his newly appointed COO and chief advertising officer Barry Ferguson, got down to attain a broader viewers of entrepreneurs, newcomers and self-employed Canadians, placing brokers on the core of its technique.
“I instantly signed distribution preparations with all the key gamers, together with DLC and the English-speaking divisions of the M3 Group,” Ferguson explains. “We did the identical with all of the bigger regional gamers, the TMGs, the Premiere Mortgages, and so forth.”
Leonard says that the brand new technique acquired a optimistic response from brokers, and the financial institution was on a transparent path to profitability earlier than working into sudden challenges.
In 2023, WealthONE confronted a serious disruption when then-Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland ordered three founding shareholders to divest their stakes and sever ties with the financial institution resulting from suspected hyperlinks to the Chinese language Communist Celebration.
A brand new chapter backed by new capital
Regardless of the setback, WealthONE retained all of the regulatory approvals wanted to function as a Schedule I financial institution, together with a distinct segment product gaining traction and a strong basis of dealer partnerships.
“We really reached out to get some recommendation from Anthony Lacavera, founding father of Wind Cellular and CEO of Globalive Capital,” says Leonard. “He favored what we had been doing, that we had been establishing ourselves as a brand new challenger—not dissimilar from Equitable 20 years in the past—that we had been constructing a distinct segment for ourselves someplace the banks didn’t service, and he made a proposal to accumulate the financial institution.”
In line with Leonard, the acquisition offers the financial institution room to speculate strategically earlier than returning to the market to boost additional development capital.
“Digital innovation is one thing that we delight ourselves on, and we bolstered our know-how and cyber safety group and our digital innovation group in addition to our banking operations group,” he stated. “We’ll proceed to establish the correct varieties of people to convey into the financial institution to help key areas for development.”
Previous to the acquisition, publicly accessible data present that as of the tip of April, the financial institution had $516 million in property underneath administration, together with $360 million in residential mortgages and $40 million in non-residential mortgages.
“Our future is staying inside our lane,” Leonard says. “We’ll improve our merchandise over time, however I’d identical to to drive quicker in that lane.”
With recent capital and a brand new management group in place, Leonard believes WealthONE is now positioned not solely to succeed in profitability, however to solidify its position serving alt-A shoppers who’ve every part lenders search for, aside from a T4.
“For those who’re beginning a brand new financial institution—or gaining the management of a small financial institution—there’s lots of alternative to benefit from the developments in know-how to supply Canadian shoppers with better monetary companies and merchandise,” says the financial institution’s newly appointed board chair, John Webster. “Globalive has introduced collectively a really robust group of well-established Canadian worth traders who’re decided to be in banking for the lengthy haul and to actually develop one thing.”
A renewed push into the dealer area
With 37 years within the mortgage business—together with as president and CEO of Maple Belief and Scotia Mortgage Authority—Webster says his appointment demonstrates the financial institution’s ambitions to be a pacesetter in mortgages and various lending merchandise.
“I feel I’ve a novel understanding of what it takes to be a very good accomplice to brokers,” he informed CMT. “We’ll be centered on mortgage origination and offering very environment friendly and dependable service for brokers.”
Webster says the financial institution’s precedence will likely be making certain brokers have a deep understanding of its product suite, supported by clear and environment friendly underwriting. He additionally hinted at future alt-lending merchandise which can be “extra nimble and fully buyer centered” sooner or later.
With open banking nonetheless forthcoming in Canada, Webster believes small, tech-focused challenger banks will likely be better-positioned to benefit from the anticipated regulatory adjustments and introduce new and dynamic lending merchandise quicker than conventional establishments.
“[Brokers] will likely be listening to from WealthONE in a manner wherein they wouldn’t have prior to now,” he says. “The large information is that you simply’ve obtained a brand new aggressive entry with large ambition that’s broker-focused, and as we evolve and begin to take a look at what we are able to provide the dealer group, there will likely be extra excellent news that’s revealed as we transfer ahead.”
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Anthony Lacavera banks Barry Ferguson dealer channel Chrystia Freeland jared Lindzon John Webster lenders Paul Leonard WealthOne
Final modified: July 21, 2025
