Questrade CEO Edward Kholodenko, left, and president Rob Galaski say competitors are not driving the company’s strategy and the brokerage is looking to deliver products that meet customers’ rapidly evolving needs.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Online trade platform Questrade Financial Group Inc. is rolling out what it says is Canada’s first direct connection between brokerage accounts and popular AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT, as part of several products it’s releasing as competition among online brokerages intensifies.
The privately owned company unveiled the new offerings on Wednesday at an event in Toronto, betting that a growing generation of self-directed investors is looking for more sophisticated investing tools as brokerages race to add new features.
“We were fintech before there was fintech,” chief executive officer Edward Kholodenko said in an interview with The Globe and Mail prior to the event. He said the company is looking to deliver products that meet customers’ rapidly evolving needs.
Questrade will let customers use an artificial-intelligence integration called Model Context Protocol to connect their accounts to AI assistants they may already use.
The integration allows clients to ask AI assistants questions about their portfolios, market conditions and watchlists using their own account data. Investors can also draft trades through the AI assistant before approving them through the Questrade app.
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In May, OpenAI released a tool to allow ChatGPT Pro users in the United States to connect with financial accounts and ask the chatbot questions about their money.
Artificial intelligence will play a growing role across Questrade’s business beyond investing, the company said, with plans to eventually integrate AI into savings and borrowing products as well.
Questrade is also introducing pre-IPO investing, allowing accredited investors to buy stakes in private companies before they go public. Not to be confused with IPO access, which allows investors to request shares in select Canadian and U.S. initial public offerings at the launch price before public trading begins, pre-IPO investing allows investors to buy in weeks or sometimes months before a company goes public. Questrade is the first self-directed brokerage in Canada to offer this product, it said.
The company also announced commission-free U.S. equity options trading, and for premium members, an added bonus of receiving five cents for every U.S. equity options contract traded.
Questrade now manages about $100-billion in assets, up from $9-billion in 2019.
The company is making the product push as Canada’s online brokerage market has become increasingly competitive. Rivals including Wealthsimple, Coinbase Canada, and a new entrant, U.S. brokerage Robinhood, have all expanded their investing offerings over the past year, while millions of Canadians have opened self-directed investing accounts amid growing interest in the markets.
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Still, competitors are not driving the company’s strategy, Questrade president Rob Galaski said in an interview. “We’re not looking to do what everybody else does,” he said.
While acknowledging the industry has accelerated the pace of innovation, he said Questrade’s focus is on building products that better meet customers’ long-term needs rather than simply matching rivals’ offerings.
“We’ll launch similar types of things, but we’ll do it in a more thoughtful and better way than everybody else does,” Mr. Galaski said.
Alongside the new products, Questrade revealed its first major brand redesign in more than 25 years. The company is ditching its green triangle logo and opting for a lighter green design with just the Questrade name.
“We’ve been using the same brand, and life has changed around us,” Mr. Kholodenko said. “The new brand reflects the direction of where we’re going and the type of customer that we’re looking to attract.” He described that customer as someone ambitious who wants to become more financially secure and successful.
Questrade also continues to pursue a foray into prediction markets, another area where it has been waiting for regulatory approval from the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization. Wealthsimple is rolling out its prediction market app this summer, partnering with U.S.-based Kalshi.