← Embedded Finance Index 2026

Scotiabank

“Can a legacy Canadian Big Five bank become a North America-focused universal bank while opening its rails via APIs and outsourced partnerships?”

Founded1832
HQToronto, Ontario, Canada
FoundersWilliam Lawson (first President)
Latest roundPublicly traded (TSX: BNS, NYSE: BNS)
IndustryBank / National

The story

Scotiabank is Canada's third-largest bank by assets, founded in 1832 in Halifax. Historically known for its international footprint across Latin America and the Caribbean, the bank has been pruning underperforming international markets since 2023 under CEO Scott Thomson to refocus on North America. On the embedded finance side, Scotiabank is notable for outsourcing merchant acquiring to Chase Merchant Services and partnering exclusively with ZayZoon for earned wage access, while building out its own Scotia TranXact API platform for corporate clients.

Last 12 months

2026-09

Joined the other five of Canada's Big Six banks (RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC, National Bank) in announcing a consortium — dubbed "Dominion Ledger" for this Index — to build a shared permissioned ledger for tokenized CAD deposits. Enables instant, 24/7 interbank movement with atomic (delivery-versus-payment) settlement, targeting institutional/corporate multi-bank cash positions first. Framed as competitive defense against USD stablecoins, informed by the Bank of Canada's Project Agorá tokenization research.

Royal Bank of Canada TD Bank Group Bmo Cibc National Bank of Canada

Product timeline

1832

The Bank of Nova Scotia founded in Halifax as first chartered bank in Nova Scotia.· banking

1874

Opened Saint John, NB branch, beginning national expansion.· banking

2012

Acquired ING Direct Canada, later rebranded as Tangerine Bank.· acquisition

2024

Announced strategic partnership with Chase Merchant Services as preferred merchant acquirer.· banking

Acquisitions

ING Direct Canada (Tangerine)2012

Acquired Canadian direct bank, rebranded to Tangerine in 2014; now operates as digital banking subsidiary.

Regulated entities

regulatory licence held by Scotiabank

Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.

The stack

7 layers disclosed in Scotiabank’s embedded-finance stack

Payments / PSP

Chase Merchant ServicesScotiabank (self-operated)

Banking / BaaS

in the full report

Card issuing

in the full report

Card network

in the full report

Lending

in the full report

FX & payouts

in the full report

Treasury

in the full report

Accounting gap: minor

15 more providers across 6 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.