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How Canada’s 7th Largest Bank Aims to Become a Household Name
- On Feb. 16, 2026, EQ Bank announced it will buy PC Financial's Mastercard portfolio and PC Money accounts, partnering with Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and PC Optimum to place EQ branding in thousands of grocery stores and ATMs across Canada.
- Because 80 to 90 per cent of Canadians don't know EQ Bank, Westlake says the deal is essential to raise its profile and challenge the Big Six banks.
- Rather than opening branches, EQ Bank will expand about 180 in-store pavilions with yellow branding while cutting costs after about eight per cent staff reductions last fall.
- Market analysts flagged tradeoffs, noting Mike Rizvanovic warned higher loss ratios in PC Financial's portfolio increase EQB's credit sensitivity, while BMO raised its price target to $130 citing diversification potential.
- The deal, expected to close this year, fills EQ Bank's credit-card gap but lacks wealth management services, while rivals like Wealthsimple Inc. expand and federal government open banking measures increase competition.
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11 Articles
11 Articles
The seventh largest bank in Canada is a lender whose vast majority of Canadians have never heard of it. It does not have branches, credit cards or wealth management services.
·Montreal, Canada
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Winnipeg Free Press+4 Reposted by 4 other sources
How Canada's 7th largest bank aims to go from unknown initials to a household name
Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada
·Winnipeg, Canada
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Total News Sources11
Leaning Left6Leaning Right0Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution60% Left
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources lean Left
60% Left
L 60%
C 40%
Factuality
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