Competition Bureau Continues Focus on Financial Services: Market Study and Data Portability Report

The Canadian Competition Bureau (Bureau) continues to demonstrate its interest and focus on the financial services sector with two recent developments.

Market Study: Small and Medium Enterprise Financing

On January 12, 2026, the Bureau launched its market study into the state of competition for lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Canada. The launch follows the Bureau’s September 4, 2025, announcement of the study and subsequent public consultation on the market study’s terms of reference. The public consultation resulted in a slight expansion of the scope of the study beyond term loans to include additional financing products such as lines of credit and credit cards, and certain legislative or regulatory initiatives such as Consumer-Driven Banking, to the extent that they are informative to the state of competition in the lending sector to SMEs.

The Bureau’s market study will consider the following topics:

1. Competitive dynamics in the financing sector for SMEs
2. Barriers to entry or expansion in providing financing to SMEs
3. Barriers to switching lenders

This is the second formal market study launched since revisions to the Competition Act expanded the Bureau’s market study powers, including the ability to obtain court orders to compel the production of data and documents from market participants. The Bureau has previously conducted numerous other market studies prior to the recent amendments, including in the grocery, broadband internet and digital health industries. For more information regarding the Bureau’s market study powers, see the Blakes Market Studies Toolkit.

Interested parties are invited to provide contributions to the Bureau’s market study by February 27, 2026. The Bureau may publicly post contributions on its website, but contributors can request that their contributions remain confidential. The anticipated timeline for the market study is:

• February 27, 2026: Deadline for contributions to the market study
• Winter/Spring 2026: Stakeholder engagement and research
• Spring/Summer 2026: Analysis of potential solutions and recommendations
• Fall 2026: Publication of final report

To learn more about the consultation process for this market study, see the Blakes Bulletin: Competition Bureau to Conduct Market Study on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Lending. For more information or if you are interested in providing feedback to this consultation, please contact any member of our Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group.

Report on Data Portability

On January 15, 2026, the Bureau released a report on data portability relating to the transferability of personal information between service providers, including in the financial services industry. The report concludes that while the Bureau is generally supportive of expanding data portability, it is also aware of its potential risks to consumers and competition. The Bureau also identified key factors that must be in place for a successful data portability framework, including (i) ensuring that consumers trust oversight bodies and understand how their personal data is used, (ii) ensuring strong privacy protection, clear consent rules and high interoperability to allow data sharing between digital platforms, and (iii) learning from experiences in other countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia.

This report suggests that the Bureau will continue to advocate for data portability in the banking sector in line with its previous advocacy efforts, including most recently in 2023 when the Bureau co-created the Canadian Digital Regulators Forum (alongside the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the Competition Bureau, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Copyright Board of Canada) with a goal of strengthening information sharing and collaboration on digital market issues such as data portability and artificial intelligence.

Key Takeaways

• Businesses active in SME lending may wish to submit a contribution to the Bureau by February 27, 2026.
• Financial services remain a priority area for the Bureau, such that businesses should anticipate continued competition law focus in this sector.
• Market studies are now a core advocacy tool for the Bureau and businesses across sectors in Canada, making advanced preparedness for future market studies essential for businesses.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your usual Blakes contact or any member of our Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group.