The digital lender said in a news release Tuesday that it is launching a new account type, named the Simplii Account, and is piloting new features like bank account folders.
“Our clients are self-selecting around their attitude toward money and how they want to manage their money,” Atanaska Novakova, the head of Simplii Financial, said in an interview.
“It’s not about age and it’s not even about income or complexity of financial needs. It’s about people who want to be in control, who want good value.”
Simplii Financial is a direct banking brand owned by CIBC, created after CIBC and Loblaw Cos. Ltd. ended their nearly 20-year President’s Choice Financial banking partnership in 2017.
Simplii to launch new features aimed at streamlining spending and investing
Simplii said the folders feature is piloting this month, which could help users who want to streamline bill payments and spending or set cash aside for a vacation or emergency fund. Customers would also be able to automatically distribute paycheques across folders.
“In the spirit of giving you control, you get to self-select your folders or self-build your folders in your mobile app with a few clicks,” Novakova said, adding that the feature could remove some of the mental load associated with managing finances.
Simplii also said a new payment backup feature will be included in the pilot that would automatically cover certain transactions, reducing the possibility clients would experience insufficient funds fees.
It said it will also roll out other new features in the coming months, including the ability to share folders to simplify things like household expenses.
Simplii said it has also partnered with CIBC Investor’s Edge, allowing clients to invest while accessing funds from their Simplii account.
Currently, the lender has more than two million clients.
After the split between CIBC and Loblaw, Simplii took over everyday banking products such as savings, chequing, registered accounts and mortgages, while at the time PC Financial kept its MasterCard credit cards and PC Plus loyalty program.
Novakova said the company is being intentional with new features.
“Which means that we’re not going to chase flavours of the day, and we’re not going to chase speculative things such as prediction markets and things like that,” she said.
What the numbers say about Canadians’ views on prediction markets
Prediction market trading lets customers make wagers on the outcome of real-world events, though in Canada it is limited by securities regulators to economic, financial or climate matters.
In June, CIBC released poll data suggesting that Canadians remain cautious about prediction markets.
It found that 74% indicated prediction markets are more like gambling than investing, while 57% said they should not be available on investment platforms. The poll was conducted by Ipsos on April 8 and 9, taking responses from 1,001 Canadians.
