Eric Saumure, co-founder and principal of Ottawa accounting firm Zenbooks, has launched a volunteer campaign aimed at putting more pressure on the federal government to finally implement open banking and ensure Canada’s small businesses benefit.
With OpenSME, Saumure aims to rally Canadian small business owners and advocates behind the need for open banking. He plans to do this through a petition, an upcoming roundtable, and by gathering feedback for a pre-Budget 2026 submission OpenSME plans to share later this month with specific requests for the feds.
“My heart is with the small business owners.”
Eric Saumure,
OpenSME
While much of the attention to date has been focused on what Canadian consumers and FinTech startups stand to gain from open banking, Saumure said that small businesses from coffee shops and hair salons would also benefit greatly from its implementation—something he has come to learn firsthand through years spent serving them.
“My heart is with the small business owners,” Saumure told BetaKit in an interview.
Saumure said that many Canadian small business owners and their accountants struggle to access bank statements and other financial data on a regular and timely basis. The ability to view and share real-time banking information potentially allows them to not just produce stronger forecasts and make smarter decisions, but also obtain loans and track payments more easily, he argued.
He noted that the stakes are high for many small businesses. “They need to know if they’re going to have enough money for payroll by next week,” Saumure said. “They need to know if their client has paid them today or if the money’s coming in tomorrow.”
Saumure said OpenSME is advocating for a few items to be prioritized, including some clear deadlines. “We just want a deadline of when it’s actually going to happen, and so I think that that’s our number one ask,” Saumure said.
The inclusion of business account API access at the same terms as personal accounts in associated legislation, and grant funding to teach small business owners how to safely take advantage of open banking are two other items on OpenSME’s wishlist.
Open banking primer
Canada has been on a long and winding path toward open banking since 2018. This collection of stories will catch you up on progress to date:
- FinTech startups frustrated with glacial pace of Canada’s open banking consultations
- Open banking working group failing to address critical governance, standards issues
- Canadian FinTech companies launch open banking public action campaign as delays continue
- Wealthsimple’s Hanna Zaidi on the “lack of political will” harming FinTech innovation
- Payments Canada reveals no Real-Time Rail until at least 2026
- FinTech leaders say “devil is in the details” with #Budget2024 open banking promises
- Fall Economic Statement brings more delays for open banking in Canada
- Canadian FinTech leaders “cautiously optimistic” about open banking, payments modernization under Mark Carney
OpenSME has already received some support from two larger tech companies that cater to small businesses in Xero and Dext. Xero vice president of government relations Michael Cascone said the company believes that a successful open banking framework needs to be designed with small businesses and the financial professionals who serve them in mind. He called Xero’s partnership with OpenSME “a natural extension of this belief.”
“By enabling real-time data access, open banking will empower accountants to transition from backward-looking record-keepers to proactive, strategic advisors, helping their clients grow and thrive,” Cascone added.
A Chartered Professional Accountant by trade, Saumure previously worked with the Canada Revenue Agency and the federal government’s Office of the Auditor General as a student before joining KPMG.
During that time, Saumure said he saw a gap in how small businesses were served. This led him to launch Zenbooks, which today generates $3 million in annual revenue, has more than 300 clients, and has grown to 20 employees.
Saumure has also become an advocate for small businesses across the country, pulling together a popular petition in the process. After helping with the finances on Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s campaign, he claimed he turned down a major finance role on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s election campaign.
RELATED: FCAC commissioner shares update on Canada’s open banking future but makes no timeline commitments
Canada’s previous Liberal government failed to fully deliver on its promises to implement open banking, much to the chagrin of Canada’s FinTech sector.
Open banking would let consumers securely share financial data from banks with third-party providers like FinTech firms, but efforts to implement it have been repeatedly delayed over the span of several years.
During this time, leaders from across Canadian FinTech have been advocating for the country to make open banking a reality.
Fintechs Canada is one such advocate. Executive director Alex Vronces told BetaKit that while the organization is not an official partner, it is happy to promote OpenSME and “always supportive of initiatives that raise awareness of policy change to make banks work harder for Canadians, including small business owners.”
“I’ve talked to Eric about this and like the energy he’s trying to bring to the conversation,” Vronces said. “It’s easy to forget that small businesses are also supposed to benefit from consumer-driven banking. You can see it in how it’s been named and how it’s often talked about in public.”
Saumure expressed confidence that Carney is the right person to usher in open banking in Canada given his past experience doing so in the United Kingdom.
Canadian FinTech leaders who BetaKit spoke with in May echoed this belief, sharing cautious optimism that Canada now has a head of government who cares about their policy priorities. However, they also acknowledged that items like open banking might not be at the top of his to-do list amid the ongoing trade war.
The United States (US) has also been working to implement open banking, but those efforts have been unravelling lately. US President Donald Trump is currently working to replace the rules adopted under predecessor Joe Biden with a new version, which some stakeholders have argued has helped create a dysfunctional situation that could also occur here unless the Government of Canada acts quickly.
In Canada, much of the policy work on open banking is already complete. The feds have passed and enacted the first half of their open banking framework, but have yet to table the second. While the feds have stated their intentions to move on open banking again, the exact timeline is unclear.
For his part, Saumure said he is currently unsure whether OpenSME will just be a pop-up campaign or grow into a more lasting initiative. He noted that he expects a continued need to educate small business owners on open banking.
Feature image courtesy OpenSME.