VersaBank provides various banking products and services in Canada and the United States.
In 2024, the company acquired Stearns Bank Holdingford, National Association (SBH), a national bank chartered under the laws of the United States and regulated by the OCC.
Business Segments
The company has three reportable operating segments: Digital Banking Canada, Digital Banking USA and DRTC.
Digital Banking Canada: The company employs a branchless business-to-business (partner-based) model using its...
VersaBank provides various banking products and services in Canada and the United States.
In 2024, the company acquired Stearns Bank Holdingford, National Association (SBH), a national bank chartered under the laws of the United States and regulated by the OCC.
Business Segments
The company has three reportable operating segments: Digital Banking Canada, Digital Banking USA and DRTC.
Digital Banking Canada: The company employs a branchless business-to-business (partner-based) model using its proprietary financial technology to address underserved segments in the Canadian and U.S. banking markets. The company obtains its deposits and provides the majority of its loans and leases electronically via innovative deposit and lending solutions for financial intermediaries.
Digital Banking USA: The company intends to adopt a business-to-business model, leveraging its proprietary financial technology to address underserved segments of the U.S. banking market. VersaBank USA plans to acquire deposits and deliver the majority of its loans and leases electronically through innovative deposit and lending solutions tailored for financial intermediaries.
DRTC (cybersecurity services and banking and financial technology development): Leveraging its internally developed IT security software and capabilities, the company established a wholly owned subsidiary, DRT Cyber Inc. (DRTC), to pursue significant large-market opportunities in cybersecurity and to develop innovative solutions to address the rapidly growing volume of cyber threats challenging financial institutions, multi-national corporations, and government entities.
Digital Banking Canada
Lending
Point-of-Sale Loans and Leases / Receivable Purchase Program (POS/RPP Financing)
The company provides financing to its network of origination partners, who offer point-of-sale loans and leases to consumers and commercial clients in various markets throughout Canada and the U.S. through its POS/RPP Financing Program. This business continues to indicate strong potential for growth and enhanced profitability, and further, has been structured such that the risk profile remains within the company’s risk appetite as a function primarily of the cash reserves retained from its origination partners. Accordingly, the company continues to allocate considerable resources to the development of innovative enhancements to maintain its competitive advantage and increase the rate of growth of this portfolio.
Commercial Real Estate (CRE)
Commercial loans are originated through a well-established network of mortgage brokers and syndication partners and through direct contact with the company’s clients. These loans are well-secured by real estate assets primarily located in Ontario and, to a lesser extent, other Canadian provinces. The company is reducing the non-core portion of this portfolio and focusing on the more attractive insured segments.
Funding
The company has established three core diversified funding (deposit) channels that provide it with a significant cost of funds advantage: personal deposits, commercial deposits, and cash reserves retained from its POS/RPP Financing origination partners that are classified as other liabilities. Personal deposits, consisting predominately of guaranteed investment certificates, are sourced primarily through a well-established and diversified deposit broker network that the company continues to grow and expand across Canada. Commercial deposits are sourced primarily through a customized banking solution made available to insolvency professionals in Canada. The company developed innovative software that integrates banking services through a proprietary application programming interface (API) with market-leading software platforms used to administer insolvency and restructuring proceedings.
Credit Quality
The company’s business strategy involves taking lower credit risk but achieving higher NIM by providing innovative, technology-based solutions and superior service in niche markets that are not well-served by the larger financial institutions.
Digital Banking USA
VersaBank USA is in the final stages of expanding its U.S. credit offerings to include a RPP that will leverage the company’s extensive experience operating the POS/RPP Financing program for more than a decade in Canada during which time it has purchased loan and lease receivables and has experienced zero losses. The U.S. RPP will be structured similarly to the Canadian POS/RPP Financing program and will rely on a cash reserve funded from a percentage of the purchase price held back from VersaBank USA’s origination partners in order to mitigate risk to levels aligned with the company’s established risk appetite. The U.S. RPP is anticipated to be a key driver of long-term sustainable growth for the company and is expected to be funded substantially via wholesale deposits sourced primarily via the U.S. brokered certificate of deposit (CD) markets.
DRT CYBER INC.
The company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, DRTC, offers leading in-depth cybersecurity protocols, banking and financial technology development, software and supporting systems for the purpose of mitigating exposure to the myriad of cybersecurity risks that businesses, governments, and other organizations face in the normal course of their operations. Early in its planning phase, the company recognized an opportunity to leverage its excess capacity and scale its operations to address large-market opportunities in the cybersecurity space, and further develop innovative solutions to address the rapidly growing volume of cyber threats challenging, not only financial institutions, but also multi-national corporations and government entities on a daily basis. DRTC’s VersaVault product is the world’s first digital bank vault built for clients holding digital assets, designed to provide impenetrable world class security, privacy of secured keys and client-centric access flexibility. As a subsidiary of DRTC, DBG has and will continue to strengthen the company’s Business Development Partner Network and propel the growth and expansion of DRTC’s existing business.
Supervision and Regulation
The company’s activities are governed by the Bank Act. In accordance with the Bank Act, banks may engage in and carry on the business of banking and such business generally as it pertains to the business of banking.
The company is also subject to regulation under the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada Act (the FCAC Act). The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (the Agency), among other things, enforces consumer-related provisions of the federal statutes that govern financial institutions.
The company is a member institution of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC).
The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (the Act) is applicable to the company’s business in Canada.
History
The company was incorporated in 1979. The company was formerly known as Pacific & Western Bank of Canada and changed its name to VersaBank in May 2016.