In a June 2016 speech, Mark Carney, then the governor of the Bank of England, informed a banquet for bankers that a major shakeup was coming.

Carney announced he would modernize the U.K.’s payments system by letting fintechs access it so they can “compete on a level playing field with banks.” “Fintech should neither be the Wild West nor strangled at birth,” he said, expressing hope for a future “where large banks exist alongside new entrants who compete across the value chain.”

Nine years later, that vision is significantly closer to a reality in the U.K. Carney’s payments modernization efforts have been credited with lowering costs to consumers and increasing competition. U.K.-based fintechs like Revolut and Wise have become international giants, touting multi-billion-dollar valuations. 

In Canada, where criticism of the country’s tight financial regulation and lack of banking competition is mounting amid a productivity crisis, many are hoping Carney, who has also sat on the board of leading fintech Stripe, will bring that attitude to his new role as prime minister. His speeches and actions in his previous roles demonstrate he’s deeply knowledgeable—and even excited—about financial innovation. The question is whether that will translate into change given everything else on his plate.

“There’s so much volatility and turmoil right now,” said James Darroch, associate professor emeritus at the Schulich School of Business who has published extensively about innovation and competitiveness in Canadian banking, referring to the upheaval brought by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and threats to Canada’s sovereignty. “I can’t see [Carney] wanting to inject any real uncertainty. They may do long-term study, but any hope of implementation will be slow.”

Liberal Party spokesperson Isabella Orozco-Madison acknowledged The Logic’s request for comment but did not provide a response by deadline.

Slow implementation is the opposite of what proponents of financial regulatory reform are looking for. Initiatives like open banking, which would require financial institutions to provide data to fintech apps at a customer’s request, and the Real-Time Rail, the Canadian version of the payments modernization Carney oversaw at the Bank of England, have faced long delays. Calls to improve competition in Canada’s financial sector are growing.

Carney made his name as a champion of banking stability, stewarding Canada relatively safely through the 2008 financial crisis as governor of the Bank of Canada, without the bank failures and turmoil that roiled the U.S. That success subsequently landed him the top job at the Bank of England. 

His advocacy as a high-profile proponent of a set of international banking reforms known as Basel III, which would require large banks to hold larger capital cushions to protect against shocks, reportedly earned him the ire of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon—and propelled him to a position as chair of the international Financial Stability Board in 2011.

The appointment was “a testament to the faith people had in his judgement regarding financial regulation,” said Lawrence Schembri, a former deputy governor of the Bank of Canada who worked under Carney during the financial crisis. “The crisis was a multi-pronged failure of regulation.”

As governor of the Bank of England, however, Carney earned a reputation as an advocate for banking competition and financial system reform. “He was a champion of innovation,” said Marie Walker, Cambridge University’s honorary expert on open banking. “He created a good environment for fintechs, not to the detriment of the banks, but without the banks being able to put brakes on.”

In addition to opening up the payment system to competition from fintechs, the Bank of England launched a partnership program with fintechs working on products that could improve the central bank’s operations under Carney’s tenure. Carney also commissioned a review of the future of the UK financial system, calling the country “a long way behind” countries like Sweden, the Netherlands and India, which have direct, free and real-time bank-to-bank payments.

Carney also warns of the risks of unfettered tech disruption in the financial system in his speeches. In his 2016 speech to London’s bankers, he joked that “sometimes when I hear of democratising finance, spreading risk in capital-light originate-to-distribute models, I think I haven’t been this excited since the advent of sub-prime”—the loans issued to borrowers with low credit scores that triggered the 2008 global financial crisis. “The history of financial innovation is littered with examples that led to early booms, growing unintended consequences, and eventual busts,” he said in a 2017 speech.

After leaving central banking, Carney even gained some direct experience in fintech. In 2021, he joined the board of Stripe, a firm known for its bold bets on technologies like stablecoins. Stripe spokesperson Casey Becker declined to comment on what the firm is hoping to see from Carney on financial regulation in Canada.

Despite this background, fintech and financial regulation were absent from the Liberal platform during the campaign. Rick Perkins, the Conservative candidate for South Shore-St. Margarets in Nova Scotia and his party’s innovation critic before losing his seat to Liberal MP Jessica Fancy-Landry, criticized the Liberals’ lack of attention to the issue in an interview with The Logic leading up to the election.

Open banking and the Real-Time Rail have made progress under the Liberals’ watch, but the Conservatives have been vocal about their support for moving faster on those files and prioritizing competition in the financial sector.

“After ten years of the Liberals on fintech, I don’t think that it’s actually going to be much different, since the same players are basically running the show,” Perkins said. “Mark Carney is a banker. I don’t think many Canadians think that bankers do the individual Canadians many favours.”

Alex Vronces, executive director of the industry group Fintechs Canada, noted Carney won’t have direct oversight of financial system reform as prime minister. “He’ll set the direction for the government, but his finance minister, whoever that ends up being, will be in charge of the day-to-day financial sector policy,” he said. “Whom Carney picks matters as much as, if not more than, what he believes.”

Walker, the Cambridge open banking expert, said she doesn’t expect Carney will be deterred by politics or competing priorities from bringing his vision for financial reform to Canada.

“Mark Carney is a positive force for financial innovation. I also think he’s quite a strong force,” she said. “I think he is quite a strong personality that can get things done.”