EQ Bank Partners With Flinks To Deliver On Open Banking

New product partnership enables EQ Bank to allow digital banking customers to securely share data with Canada's fastest growing network of third-party fintech applications

Toronto, ON /PRNewswire/ - EQ Bank, powered by Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank™, has partnered with Flinks, a leader in open banking, to provide EQ Bank customers with the ability to share their financial data securely with third-party fintech applications of their choosing.

This partnership, and the integration of Flinks Outbound, an open banking environment, provides EQ Bank with the framework to quickly deliver flexible open banking capabilities and easily launch and operate new API data sharing methods while providing the bank with critical new data management capabilities. EQ customers who provide explicit consent will have the visibility into what data are they sharing, with whom and for how long.

With Canada's fast growing network of fintechs apps, Flinks enables easy adoption of these APIs by managing the onboarding, accreditation, and support.

"This announcement marks an important milestone in the evolution of the long partnership between Flinks and EQ Bank," said Andrew Moor, President and CEO of Equitable Bank. "Our two companies have long been philosophically aligned in believing that open banking can bring broad benefits to Canadian society. We work closely together to engage with government and industry groups to try to bring open banking to life in Canada and are delighted to deliver against that priority and bring innovative services to our customers to give them more control over their financial lives and their data."

"Many of our customers have been asking for more seamless ways to share data with their other financial apps and we're excited to be able to act on their feedback through this partnership with Flinks," said Cathy Ly, Vice President, Customer Experience, Digital Banking for Equitable Bank. "Just as important, however, are those customers who have not asked about data sharing because they are unaware of the benefits that can come from it. We're looking forward to reinventing how customers engage with EQ Bank and their financial data through open banking."

"Fintech adoption is here to stay and the winning banks are the ones who can focus on ways to create value for their mutual customers and embrace it. We're thrilled to see Equitable leading the way in taking action to make open banking happen," said Frederick Lavoie, Flinks' Chief Operating Officer.

About EQ Bank
EQ Bank, the digital banking platform launched in 2016 by Equitable Bank (a federally regulated Schedule I bank), provides state-of-the-art digital banking services. The Savings Plus Account reimagines banking by offering an everyday high interest rate, plus the flexibility of a chequing account, with free transactions, no everyday banking fees, no minimum balances, fast, cheap, and fully transparent international money transfers, and more—all from one account. Its Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs) also offer Canadians a wide range of options with competitive rates. EQ Bank has been named the top Schedule I Bank in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks 2022 and 2021 lists. To learn more, please visit www.eqbank.ca

About Equitable Bank
EQB Inc. trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: EQB, EQB.PR.C and EQB.R) and serves more than 340,000 Canadians through its wholly owned subsidiary Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank™. Equitable Bank has a clear mandate to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. Founded over 50 years ago, Equitable Bank provides diversified personal and commercial banking and through its EQ Bank platform (eqbank.ca) has been named the top Schedule I Bank in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks 2022 and 2021 lists. Please visit www.equitablebank.ca for details.

About Flinks
Trusted by millions of individuals accessing financial services at world-class companies, Flinks enables businesses to connect to their customers' financial accounts, enrich this data, and utilize it to deliver better digital products. Serving innovators in lending, fintech, digital banking, asset management and insurance, Flinks is becoming a global leader in financial data, open banking and analytics. To learn more, visit www.flinks.com