Client Profile
Industry/Sector: Financial Services
Canada’s 1st Schedule 1 Chartered Impact Investment Bank. Vancity Community Investment Bank (formerly Citizens Bank of Canada; one of Canada’s 1st online banks) is a values-driven bank on a mission to finance a sustainable tomorrow.
Building on Vancity’s 70 years of banking experience to support organizations and enterprises that share a commitment that positively impacts the communities where they live and work.
Challenge
Successfully launch the bank under the new business model in a 6 month timeframe. This included building a foundational framework to enable the operations of the bank, hire the on-the-ground team, establish strategic partnerships as well as underwrite and fund the first loan as an MVP.
Results
1 of 2 Consultants accountable for the implementation activities. Under Service Level Agreements with stakeholders from the parent company, Vancity, results ranged from establishing policies and procedures for human resources, information technology, marketing, branding, communications and PR strategies, community investment and engagement strategies through impact partnerships as well as initiating the BCorp certification process.
- Hired the on the initial ground team of 7 (Director, Lenders, Account Managers, Analysts and Administrator)
- Led the development of the prototype internal systems (intranet, file repository, etc.) to launch the organization
Our Learnings
Launching (beyond a rebrand because it operated under a different name and business model) a start-up bank in 2017 when the economy was not strong came with its own unique challenges. There was a steep learning curve because we were essentially building the aircraft as we were flying it. The bank is a testament of the innovative vision Vancity had but also the strength of the teams that collaborated to support the necessary activities to make it feasible.