President's Choice Financial

President's Choice Financial (French: Services financiers le Choix du Président), commonly shortened to PC Financial, is the financial service brand of the Canadian supermarket chain Loblaw Companies.

President's Choice Financial
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1996 (1996)
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario, Canada
Number of employees
1,097
ParentLoblaw Companies
Websitepcfinancial.ca

Two different wholly owned subsidiaries of Loblaw Companies provide services under the President's Choice Financial brand: personal banking and Mastercard credit card services are provided by the federally chartered[1] President's Choice Bank, and insurance is provided by PC Financial Insurance Brokers.

Services

Bank Machines (ATMs)

Most Loblaws and Loblaws-owned stores offer access to a PC Financial-branded ATM. These ATM can be used for no fee by PC Financial MasterCard holders. All other customers who use the ATM (including Simplii) will be charged fees

Mastercard credit cards

President's Choice Financial Mastercard credit cards are issued by President's Choice Bank, a subsidiary of Loblaw Companies. PC Mastercard has no relationship to CIBC, although cash advance fees are waived at CIBC bank machines.

PC Financial MasterCards are embedded with PayPass technology. In November 2014, Ugo Wallet, a mobile wallet app for Android was launched in partnership with TD Canada Trust.[2] In addition, users can store PC credit cards on Apple Pay and Android Pay.[3][4]

Insurance

President's Choice offers auto insurance and home insurance, underwritten through a broker model by a number of selected Canadian insurance companies, pet insurance, underwritten by SecuriCan General Insurance Company, and travel insurance by Travel Guard Canada as managing general underwriter and agent for American Home Assurance Company. President's Choice discontinued their home and auto insurance offerings to new customers in 2009 for a brief period as structural changes were made. During this time, the previous partnership with Aviva came to an end. Their home and auto insurance products returned under a separate "broker model" in January 2010. Home and auto insurance are offered in Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.

Consumer banking (since 2020)

President's Choice Financial launched the PC Money Account, a new no-fee personal banking service, on September 14, 2020. Unlike its former banking service, which was provided by CIBC, PC Money Accounts are issued directly by President's Choice Bank.[5]

Former services

Consumer banking (1996–2017)

Standard consumer banking products (chequing accounts, savings accounts, loans, mortgages) were provided as a joint venture with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce which began in 1996. CIBC offered lines of credit, loans, Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSPs), and mortgages using the President's Choice brand under license, except for between January 2001 and October 2005 when banking services were provided by Amicus Bank (a CIBC subsidiary). Services were available in all Canadian provinces, except Quebec. All PC Financial bank accounts had the same bank number as CIBC (010), and were located under one transit/branch number (30800).

To benefit from its low-cost and -fee structure, clients performed their banking transactions on the Internet, at a PC- or CIBC-branded ATM, by telephone, or in person at a limited number of locations. PC Financial has no branches; rather transactions were conducted in person at pavilions located inside Loblaw-affiliated stores. As of January 2009, there were 234 pavilions in Canada.

President's Choice Financial consumer banking services were ranked by J.D. Power and Associates as having the highest customer satisfaction among mid-size Canadian banks in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.

On August 16, 2017 it was announced that Loblaw Companies and CIBC had mutually decided to terminate their joint venture to provide consumer banking products.[6] All PC Financial mortgages, loans, investments, and bank accounts were transferred to CIBC's new direct banking brand Simplii Financial effective November 1, 2017.[7] PC Financial's credit card and insurance products were unaffected by the decision, and continued to be offered by subsidiaries of Loblaw Companies.[8] At the time of the announcement the consumer banking products had approximately 2 million customers.[6]

PC Financial's consumer banking services were operated by CIBC so, through CIBC, it was a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA). CIBC is a registered member of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal agency insuring eligible deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks, and the coverage extended to PC Financial banking products issued by CIBC.

Ombudsman

As required, President's Choice Bank has an independent Ombudsman to review customer complaints.[9] In 2014 the office received 6 complaints,[10] in 2015 the office received 9 complaints,[11] and in 2016 another 9 complaints were received.[12]

Points
Main article: PC Optimum

Customers with President's Choice Financial Mastercard products collect PC Optimum reward points on all purchases with their credit cards.

See also

References
  1. "Who We Regulate". Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. Government of Canada. October 30, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  2. Bader, Daniel (24 November 2014). "UGO Wallet aims to combine mobile payments and loyalty | MobileSyrup.com". MobileSyrup. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  3. Rossignol, Joe (2 August 2016). "Canada's Tangerine and PC Financial Now Support Apple Pay". MacRumors. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  4. Ng, Gary (31 May 2017). "Android Pay Launches in Canada to Take on Apple Pay". iPhone in Canada. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  5. "Loblaw's PC Financial launches no-fee bank account". BNN Bloomberg. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  6. Ligaya, Armina (August 16, 2017). "PC Financial customers to transfer to new direct bank brand Simplii as CIBC, Loblaw part ways". Financial Post. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  7. Evans, Pete (August 16, 2017). "CIBC to swallow PC Financial's banking business, rebrand as Simplii". CBC News. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  8. "CIBC to launch Simplii direct banking brand, integrate PC Financial accounts". CTV News. The Canadian Press. August 16, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  9. "The legal stuff" (PDF). President's Choice Financial. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  10. "Ombudsman Annual Report" (PDF). Toronto, ON: President's Choice Financiak. 31 December 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  11. "Ombudsman Annual Report" (PDF). Toronto, ON: President's Choice Financial. 31 December 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  12. "Ombudsman Annual Report" (PDF). Toronto, ON: President's Choice Financial. 31 December 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2018.

Footnotes
  1. ^ BMO closes supermarket locations
  2. ^ 2010 Canadian Retail Banking Customer Satisfaction Study
  3. ^ PC Financial Online Application
  4. ^ President's Choice Financial FAQs
  5. ^ PC MasterCard


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