Risks, Regulations, and Impacts of FinTech Adoption on Commercial Banks in the United States and Canada: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The growth of FinTech has increasingly attracted the attention of financial industry players. The speed and complexity with which new financial technologies have spread around the world have created regulatory challenges for the United States and Canadian authorities. Unlike the United States, where there is regulatory fragmentation and a supervisory instrument with regulatory relief, Canada has a more integrated regulatory approach managed by regulatory sandbox principles. The aim of this article is to study and compare the impact of FinTech adoption on commercial banks over the 2018–2023 period in the United States and Canadian FinTech ecosystems. The results essentially show that FinTech has a positive impact on commercial banks' performance and financial growth, and a negative impact on liquidity and financial risk. Our results present several contributions and mainly show that: (1) In the presence of multiple entry channels for FinTech startups, the impact of FinTech on financial performance is higher in the United States than in Canada. (2) Because of its regulatory approach, Canada lags behind the United States in the adoption rate of financial technologies. (3) Balance of power in the financial sector induces commercial banks not to consider FinTech startups as threats but rather as partners that offer opportunities for expertise and reduced regulatory costs. Finally, FinTech can be disruptive and presents many challenges for regulators given the complexity and speed of innovation it promotes.