On July 7, 2025, Wealth One Bank of Canada (“WealthONE”) and Globalive Corp. (“Globalive”) announced the successful completion of the acquisition of WealthONE by a consortium of Canadian strategic investors led by Globalive, marking a transformative milestone for the federally chartered Schedule I digital bank. The transaction was valued at approximately $58 million for a 65 percent stake held by Globalive and the consortium, with legacy investors retaining the balance. The government of Canada approved the acquisition on June 18, 2025, following a comprehensive and rigorous regulatory review process under the Bank Act (Canada).
The deal provides WealthONE with the capital foundation and strategic expertise needed to accelerate its mission of delivering accessible, innovative banking solutions to a broad cross-section of Canadians, with a particular focus on self-employed individuals, entrepreneurs, high net worth individuals, investors with multiple properties seeking specialized lending solutions, and newcomers to Canada. The bank, which was founded in 2016 with an initial focus on Chinese-Canadian clients, will continue to operate as a federally regulated Schedule I bank under its current charter, with no changes to its day-to-day operations. The Globalive-led consortium includes Anthony Lacavera (Chairman of Globalive and founder of Freedom Mobile), Western Canadian property developer Ryan Beedie of Beedie Capital, Calgary-based Grasslands Finance Corp., the co-founders of Dominion Lending Centres Inc., wealth-management firm Optimize Financial Group, and other strategic investors with experience in the financial services sector.
BLG acted as counsel to Wealth One Bank, with a team led by Andrew McLean and Manoj Pundit that included Anthony Milazzo, Francesca Lee, Chelsea Papadatos, Akaash Viswanathan, and Joyce Chiu (Corporate/Capital Markets); Gus Karantzoulis, Shane Pearlman, and Suhuyini Abudulai (Financial Services); Danny Lang (Tax); Denes Rothschild (Competition); Ross McGowan (Disputes); and Maddie Axelrod and Tommy Hong (Labour & Employment). INFOR Financial Inc. acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Wealth One Bank on the transaction.
