Canadian Fintech Affiliate: New bank who dis?

Morning!

Welcome to the Canadian Fintech Affiliate newsletter, a monthly roundup of industry news, offer updates and conferences worth attending for Canadian affiliate marketers.

In today’s email:

• What’s trending: Questrade becomes a bank, Wealthsimple ships new features, EQ acquires PC Financial, Laurentian is sold off to Fairstone and National Bank

• Interview with Jean-Maximilien Voisine, founder of Milesopedia

• Best conferences to attend this winter

• Jobs: Roles at Fintel Connect, Pet Lab Co, Embark and 10+ others.

Today’s reading time is 6 minutes.

Opinions expressed are my own*

Affiliate Tip

Don’t discount the role relationships play in affiliate marketing. Affiliates are taking a risk in sending traffic to untested landing pages and trusting they will get paid (on time) by advertisers only after users convert. As an advertiser you need to build trust and fast.

An quick way to do this it by being ‘easy’ to work with. If an advertiser is making constant requests, not being flexible and ultimately delaying the initial launch, affiliates may cut their losses and move on.

---

🤑 What’s Trending

Lots to cover, here we go.

Questbank coming 2026

With Questrade becoming a schedule I bank they are expected to release a new suite of banking products, including chequing and savings accounts, credit cards and loan products in 2026.

Publishers should expect more competition in unsecured credit cards in 2026 ;)

For affiliates, this is exciting news. With Questrade on Impact, expect them to roll out more offers on the platform as they get released. Hopefully, this new release will allow them to build out their events tracking attribution in Impact.

Time will tell how aggressive they’ll be in the affiliate channel. These are competitive verticals where brands have strong welcome offers/bonuses and high CPAs.

Wealthsimple is attracting advanced traders

In October, Wealthsimple had its second product unveiling and announced a ton of new features, like zero-commission options contracts, lower crypto trading fees, the ability to buy and sell gold, access direct indexing, mutual fund exchange, a portfolio featuring alternative investments, loans to help maximize RRSP contributions, and artificial intelligence (AI) stock research tools.

These are great features for Canadian investors, but what about publishers and creators? What does it mean for them from an affiliate standpoint?

1. Increased conversion rates

If these features make their app more desirable, it could lead to a positive increase in conversion rates. Higher conversion rates mean higher earnings per click (EPC) for affiliates, which could then incentivize them to push more traffic to WS over other partners.

2. Increase the average revenue per user (ARPU)

With over 3 million Canadians already using Wealthsimple, increasing the ARPU is a priority. With new features targeting more advanced trading features, they’re making a push to increase the number of trades each users makes. With their products being 0 or low fee, expanding higher margin products like crypto, options trading and gold can lead to an increase in the average revenue per user.

The higher the ARPU the higher the LTV of a user. In turn, marketing budgets will increase and CPAs for affiliate along with it. That said, with Wealthsimple currently paying $25 CPA, it has a LONG way to come before it’s remotely competitive.

I think WS is building an incredible suite of products and their acquisition loop is clearly working (might be the best in Canada). If they decide to invest more in building out the affiliate channel, here’s what they need to do:

1. Increase the CPA to $150 on deposit

2. Leverage Impact attribution tracking and set up events on registration, KYC, first deposit and total deposits in first 30 days of registration, add event for first trade. This gives affiliates more transparency on the quality of the users they’re sending.

3. Work with top affiliates to scale on a hybrid conversion events, meaning the publisher or creator gets paid multiple times when a user hits different milestones (events in Impact). Example could be $100 on KYC, $100 on first deposit, $50 on first options contract.

Get ready for the EQ Bank No-Fee Mastercard with PC Optimum

EQ Bank made a splash by acquiring PC Financial. I’ll be honest, I have no idea if this was a good deal or not from a financial perspective. But for publishers, its good news. PC has been on the fence with affiliate acquisition over the years. They have a few relationships but it’s never been their focus.

EQ’s program is more robust. They’re live on Rakuten with attribution set up and have a dedicated affiliate manager. Expect both the No-Fee and World Elite cards to be added to their affiliate portfolio first, when the rebrand is complete. I’d like to see them also add bank accounts and insurance offers also.

The more offers they add, the more investment they put into the affiliate channel sends positive signals to other FIs that affiliates are a strong source of quality users.

Laurentian is finally dead

Any time an offer goes offline, regardless if it was a strong revenue driver or not, is a negative. You want brands to be successful in the channel and to continue to invest in growing with publishers to drive new customer acquisition.

What’s the direct impact on affiliates? Outside of a few niche creators, likely minimal. That said, more competition in banking is not only better for consumers but also for affiliates.

🍸Conferences

Upcoming conferences worth checking out:

• Affiliate Summit West - Jan 12-14, 2026 | Las Vegas, US

  • One of the largest affiliate conferences in North America.

• Automotive Finance Canada - February 10th, 2026 | Toronto, Canada

  • If you’re active in the auto finance space, this would be one to check out.

💼 Affiliate Marketing Jobs

Looking for a job board specifically for affiliate marketing roles in Canada?

Check it out 👉 affiliate-marketing-jobs.com

See roles from Fintel Connect, Pet Lab Co, Embark and 10+ others.

If you're hiring in the affiliate space, you can post a job for free. Get started👉 here.

🎙️ Interview with Jean-Maximilien Voisine, founder of Milesopedia

This month, we did something different, and I asked Rakesh Mistry if he would step in for me and sit down with Jean-Maximilien Voisine, founder of Milesopedia, as part of our Fintech Affiliate Spotlight Series.

In this conversation, Jean-Maximilien shares how Milesopedia built credibility in a highly regulated industry, how data and authenticity have guided every partnership, and what’s next as the company embraces AI and new growth opportunities.

Here’s their conversation, edited for clarity and length.

Rakesh Mistry:

First off, congratulations on Milesopedia turning 10 and on everything you’ve achieved during that time. It’s been great to work with you and to see how far you’ve taken the brand. For those who may not know the full story, how did Milesopedia identify affiliate partnerships as a key growth lever early on, and how has the strategy evolved as the brand matured?

Jean-Maximilien Voisine:

At the beginning, I actually didn’t know anything about affiliate marketing. When I launched the site in 2015, it was mainly a personal blog about travel and credit cards. Shortly after the launch, Scotiabank and Fintel Connect—then ShareResults—reached out to me and explained how affiliate partnerships worked.

I quickly saw that readers were taking action after reading our guides—they were applying for cards and booking flights. Affiliate marketing became a natural way to fund free, high-quality content, and over time it turned into one of our core pillars.

Even though we now have other revenue sources through strategic partnerships, affiliate marketing remains central to our model and helped us build a strong sub-affiliate network, which is now one of our key strengths in Canada.

Rakesh Mistry:

I’ve always found it interesting how you created not just a brand but an ecosystem—Milesopedia as the anchor and the sub-affiliates supporting it. You’ve helped connect major financial institutions such as RBC, TD, and Scotiabank with your audience in a way that benefits everyone. When you’re selecting affiliate or brand partners—banks, card issuers, travel providers—what criteria or performance metrics matter most to you?

Jean-Maximilien Voisine:

Authenticity comes first. The products must bring real value to our readers. We only promote items we’ve tested and approved ourselves.

Our team of 20 is very diverse—parents, digital nomads, students, even retirees—so between all of us, we’ve tested virtually every product on the market. That allows us to evaluate where real value lies.

After authenticity, data drives our decisions. We look at approval rates, EPC, conversion metrics, and payout reliability—because we’re a business, and we have employees to pay. Sometimes a partner looks good on paper but isn’t a fit in practice; when that happens, we simply don’t promote them.

Rakesh Mistry:

How do you balance your content strategy between what you want to create and what your audience is asking for?

Jean-Maximilien Voisine:

Community feedback is the foundation of Milesopedia. We have around 40,000 members in our Facebook group, moderated by 10 volunteers who handle hundreds of questions each week.

Because of that engagement, we always know what readers care about and how they’re using their points. We hold monthly meetings with bank and travel partners—airlines, rewards programs—to share those insights.

Recently we hosted events in Toronto and Montreal where we connected executives from Air Canada Aeroplan directly with our readers. Seeing those genuine interactions reminded us why we do this.

Rakesh Mistry:

Which untapped affiliate opportunities or verticals do you see as the next big growth areas for Milesopedia?

Jean-Maximilien Voisine

For Milesopedia, credit cards will always remain our core. But over the years, our banking partners have asked us to expand into related products—checking accounts, savings accounts, and other banking tools.

The next major growth areas for us are insurance, mortgages, investment platforms, VPNs, and eSIM services.

Because Milesopedia is still largely perceived as a travel-rewards brand, we’re planning to launch a separate brand focused on personal and business finance. I can’t share the name yet, but it’s in the works.

Rakesh Mistry:

To wrap up—if you were advising a new fintech brand entering the affiliate space today, what should they focus on first: tracking infrastructure, relationships, or content authority?

Jean-Maximilien Voisine:

It’s really a combination of all three, but start with clean tracking.

When we began, tracking wasn’t our strong point—but it’s the foundation of everything. Without reliable tracking, you can’t prove value.

Next, focus on real relationships—face to face, not just Zoom calls. I travel between France and Canada six or seven times a year to meet partners. A handshake still builds more trust than a Google Meet.

Finally, take compliance seriously. We’ve seen competitors disappear because they ignored it. That’s why brands and creators partner with us: we manage compliance so they can focus on creating content that converts.

When done right, affiliate marketing becomes a win-win for both brands and publishers.

***— Are you interested in being interviewed for my newsletter? Reply to this email.***