Earlier this month, WealthONE was acquired by a consortium of investors led by Globalive, the venture firm founded by Canadian entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera, and appointed an entirely new board.
Taking a page from the Equitable playbook, the Schedule I bank believes it has found an underserved niche in Canadian lending: alt-A borrowers such as entrepreneurs, contractors and newcomers seeking custom-built solutions.
“We know through our own data that our customer in Canada has a higher net worth, a higher income and a better credit score than the typical prime borrower, but they don’t come with a T4, so they’re harder to deal with and harder to approve,” WealthONE President and CEO Paul Leonard told Canadian Mortgage Trends.
“That’s our area of expertise; we’re really good at it, and that’s why we’ve emerged out of nowhere in the last couple of years to have a good representation from brokers across the country,” he added.
Early growing pains and a pivot to brokers
Founded in late 2016, WealthOne was originally created to serve the needs of Chinese immigrants to Canada.
“The bank stumbled out of the gate,” says Leonard, who joined as CFO in 2018. “But the products we were offering were attractive to a much broader audience than solely the Chinese Canadian community.”
After being promoted to CEO in 2020, Leonard, along with his newly appointed COO and chief marketing officer Barry Ferguson, set out to reach a broader audience of entrepreneurs, newcomers and self-employed Canadians, putting brokers at the core of its strategy.
“I immediately signed distribution arrangements with all the major players, including DLC and the English-speaking divisions of the M3 Group,” Ferguson explains. “We did the same with all the larger regional players, the TMGs, the Premiere Mortgages, and so on.”
Leonard says that the new strategy received a positive response from brokers, and the bank was on a clear path to profitability before running into unexpected challenges.
In 2023, WealthONE faced a major disruption when then-Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland ordered three founding shareholders to divest their stakes and sever ties with the bank due to suspected links to the Chinese Communist Party.
A new chapter backed by new capital
Despite the setback, WealthONE retained all the regulatory approvals needed to operate as a Schedule I bank, along with a niche product gaining traction and a solid foundation of broker partnerships.
“We actually reached out to get some advice from Anthony Lacavera, founder of Wind Mobile and CEO of Globalive Capital,” says Leonard. “He liked what we were doing, that we were establishing ourselves as a new challenger—not dissimilar from Equitable 20 years ago—that we were building a niche for ourselves somewhere the banks didn’t service, and he made an offer to acquire the bank.”
According to Leonard, the acquisition gives the bank room to invest strategically before returning to the market to raise further growth capital.
“Digital innovation is something that we pride ourselves on, and we bolstered our technology and cyber security team and our digital innovation group as well as our banking operations group,” he said. “We’ll continue to identify the right kinds of individuals to bring into the bank to support key areas for growth.”
Prior to the acquisition, publicly available records show that as of the end of April, the bank had $516 million in assets under management, including $360 million in residential mortgages and $40 million in non-residential mortgages.
“Our future is staying within our lane,” Leonard says. “We’ll enhance our products over time, but I’d just like to drive faster in that lane.”
With fresh capital and a new leadership team in place, Leonard believes WealthONE is now positioned not only to reach profitability, but to solidify its role serving alt-A clients who have everything lenders look for, other than a T4.
“If you’re starting a new bank—or gaining the control of a small bank—there’s a lot of opportunity to take advantage of the developments in technology to provide Canadian consumers with greater financial services and products,” says the bank’s newly appointed board chair, John Webster. “Globalive has brought together a very strong group of well-established Canadian value investors who are determined to be in banking for the long haul and to really grow something.”
A renewed push into the broker space
With 37 years in the mortgage industry—including as president and CEO of Maple Trust and Scotia Mortgage Authority—Webster says his appointment demonstrates the bank’s ambitions to be a leader in mortgages and alternative lending products.
“I think I have a unique understanding of what it takes to be a good partner to brokers,” he told CMT. “We’ll be focused on mortgage origination and providing very efficient and reliable service for brokers.”
Webster says the bank’s priority will be ensuring brokers have a deep understanding of its product suite, supported by transparent and efficient underwriting. He also hinted at future alt-lending products that are “more nimble and completely customer focused” in the future.
With open banking still forthcoming in Canada, Webster believes small, tech-focused challenger banks will be better-positioned to take advantage of the anticipated regulatory changes and introduce new and dynamic lending products faster than traditional institutions.
“[Brokers] will be hearing from WealthONE in a way in which they wouldn’t have in the past,” he says. “The big news is that you’ve got a new competitive entry with big ambition that’s broker-focused, and as we evolve and start to look at what we can offer the broker community, there will be more good news that’s revealed as we move forward.”
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Anthony Lacavera banks Barry Ferguson broker channel Chrystia Freeland jared Lindzon John Webster lenders Paul Leonard WealthOne
Last modified: July 21, 2025