It’s been a wild day in the finance world so far, but there’s some positive news out there, too. Wealthsimple has been busy, unveiling new AI, trading, and banking features, while CEO Michael Katchen said the federal government could ban fees for switching financial institutions.
To start, Wealthsimple revealed a dozen new features at its Wealthsimple Presents: Something Good Is Going To Happen (ironic name, all things considered) product showcase. These include Penny, an AI assistant that can handle everyday money and trading tasks; a faster, fully customizable app experience; and advanced tools for active traders.
AI banking assistant
Wealthsimple says that Penny can assist with everyday financial tasks like sending e-transfers and wires, providing spending insights, and flagging duplicate credit card charges. It can also manage expenses and pay invoices. For more self-directed investors, Penny can also help buy and sell stocks, ETFs, and other asset classes. Interestingly, Wealthsimple notes that Penny can understand broader prompts and take action on them.
For example, you could tell it to “Max out my RRSP by March” — and it will map out next steps like checking with securely connected financial institutions, setting up recurring investments, and adapting if a client’s situation changes.
Alongside this, Canadians will also be able to securely connect their Claude or ChatGPT accounts to their Wealthsimple accounts, select the level of access, and critical accounts will receive an extra check. This will be available in early 2027.
Here are some of the other features that Wealthsimple announced:
- Wealthsimple Pay: Instantly send up to $100,000 to other Wealthsimple users (available now)
- Temporary virtual cards: A first for Canadian consumers—the new temporary virtual cards will be available to all Wealthsimple prepaid card and credit card holders. A user can hold up to five cards at a time, and each has unique details, a custom expiry, and a spending limit (available end of 2026).
- Wealthsimple’s Business credit card: Any business can apply for the credit card with no FX fees and 1 per cent cashback on all purchases (available early 2027).
- WealthSimple Pro: serious traders can now consolidate all of their trading to Wealthsimple, bringing positions, watchlists, and level 2 market data into the app (available late November).
- Even faster trading: Mobile trades now take two steps instead of eight, and four seconds instead of 21.
It soon won’t cost you to switch banks
According to a post on X from Wealthsimple CEO Michael Katchen, the federal government is moving closer to banning exit fees.
This year alone, Canadians have been charged $73 million in exit fees to move their savings to Wealthsimple.
Today the federal government moved to ban these fees at federally regulated banks, an important first step toward fulfilling the promise made in Budget 2025 to ban investment and registered account transfer fees.
Thank you @FP_Champagne for your leadership. Now it’s time for provincial governments and the rest of the financial industry to follow.
Wealthsimple has never charged an exit fee. We earn the privilege of managing our clients’ money by giving them reasons to stay, not charging them to leave.
Every financial institution in Canada could decide today to end this tax on choice. You don’t need regulation to do the right thing.
https://t.co/yCXfGwWcYy— Michael Katchen (@mkatchen) November 4, 2026
Interestingly, Katchen said that its customers have been charged $73 million to move their savings over to Wealthsimple.
Katchen says this is an “important step” toward fulfilling a promise made in Budget 2025 to ban investment and registered account transfer fees.
According to a federal government review of bank transfer fees, the average fee to transfer your account to a different institution ranges from $50 to $150 per account, with partial transfers costing between $25 and $75.
Header image credit: Wealthsimple
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