It’s been a wild day in the financial world so far, but there’s some positive news out there too. Wealthsimple has been busy, unveiling new AI, trading and banking features, while CEO Michael Katchen said the federal government could ban fees for switching financial institutions.
For starters, Wealthsimple revealed a dozen new features at its Wealthsimple Presents: Something Good Happened (ironic name, all things considered) product showcase. These include Penny, an AI assistant that can handle everyday money and trading tasks; a faster, fully customizable app experience; and advanced trading tools for active traders.
AI bank assistant
Wealthsimple says Penny can help with everyday financial tasks, like sending e-transfers and wires, providing spending insights and flagging duplicate credit card charges. It can also manage expenses and pay bills. For more self-directed investors, Penny can also help buy and sell stocks, ETFs and other asset classes. Interestingly, Wealthsimple notes that Penny can understand and act on broader queries.
For example, you can tell it “Max out my RRSP by March” – and it will map out next steps such as checking with securely affiliated financial institutions, setting up recurring investments and adjusting when a client’s situation changes.
Alongside this, Canadians will also be able to securely link their Claude or ChatGPT accounts to their Wealthsimple accounts, select the level of access, and critical accounts will receive an extra check. This will be available in early 2027.
Here are some of the other features that Wealthsimple announced:
- Wealthsimple Pay: Send up to $100,000 instantly to other Wealthsimple users (available now)
- Temporary Virtual Cards: A first for Canadian consumers – the new temporary virtual cards will be available to all Wealthsimple prepaid card and credit card holders. A user can hold up to five cards at a time, and each one has unique details, a custom expiration and a spending limit (available in late 2026).
- Wealthsimple’s Business Credit Card: Any business can apply for the credit card with no FX fees and 1 percent cashback on all purchases (available early 2027).
- WealthSimple Pro: serious traders can now consolidate all their trading on Wealthsimple, bringing positions, watchlists and level 2 market data into the app (available late November).
- Even faster trading: Mobile trading now takes two steps instead of eight, and four seconds instead of 21.
It won’t cost you to switch banks soon
According to a post on X by Wealthsimple CEO Michael Katchen, the federal government is moving closer to banning exit fees.
This year alone, Canadians were charged $73 million in exit fees for moving their savings to Wealthsimple.
Today, the federal government moved to ban these fees at federally regulated banks, an important first step towards fulfilling the promise made in Budget 2025 to ban investment and registered account transfer fees.
Thank you @FP_Champagne for your guidance. Now it’s time for provincial governments and the rest of the financial industry to follow suit.
Wealthsimple has never charged an exit fee. We earn the privilege of managing our clients’ money by giving them reasons to stay, not paying them to leave.
Any financial institution in Canada could decide today to opt out of this tax. You don’t need regulation to do the right thing.
— Michael Katchen (@mkatchen) November 4, 2026
Interestingly, Katchen said his clients were charged $73 million to move their savings to Wealthsimple.
Katchen says this is an “important step” to fulfill a promise made in Budget 2025 to ban investment and registered account transfer fees.
According to a federal government review of bank transfer fees, the average fee to transfer your account to another institution ranges from $50 to $150 per account, with partial transfers ranging from $25 to $75.
Header image credit: Wealthsimple