Indigenous-owned banking services expand in hopes of filling access gaps

The First Nations Bank of Canada (FNBC) is increasing its Alberta footprint, with hopes to keep expanding local financial services in Indigenous communities.

The bank's latest branch in Maskwacis, Alta., about 80 kilometres south of Edmonton, is the second in the province the first opened in Enoch Cree Nation, just southwest of the capital city, in 2019. The new location is the 20th overall across the country.

The smell of sweetgrass hung in the air after a ceremony last week as bank president and CEO Bill Lomax marked the opening alongside local officials.

"If you want to do business any big business in Canada, you need to involve the First Nations," he said.

"We're seeing so much more sophistication in what the nations are doing around the country. And we're trying to keep up with the momentum that First Nations and Indigenous communities have right now."

The Maskwacis branch comes through a partnership with Ermineskin Cree Nation. The nation's corporate division, Neyaskweyahk Group of Companies Inc., became the bank's largest shareholder in 2022. But it will also serve the other three nations of Maskwacis: Samson Cree Nation, Louis Bull Tribe and Montana First Nation.

This isn't a first for the community: Samson Cree Nation owns the financial institution Peace Hills Trust, which also operates a location in Maskwacis.

CIBC also used to run a branch in the community, but it closed last year. Lomax predicts to see that continue, with Canada's biggest banks shutting down more local operations over the next 10 years.

Lomax said reserves and Indigenous communities are still underserved when it comes to banking and financial resources, especially in more remote areas, and that's part of why FNBC is trying to expand.

"What will happen in some cases is they'll end up with a store acting as the bank. And the service charges that go along with that end up being kind of exorbitant," he said.

Local businesses might also be more likely to rely on cash compared to big cities, and Lomax said people shouldn't have to leave their communities, potentially driving long distances, for basic services like making a deposit.

Moving toward financial sovereignty

Canada's Big Six banks have increasingly built up their Indigenous financial services. But FNBC board member Danika Littlechild said it makes a difference for people to have access to local expertise from an Indigenous-owned business 80 per cent of the bank's shareholders are Indigenous.

"I think we know that a lot of banking institutions have historically not, maybe, served Indigenous peoples in terms of their lived realities and their needs," she said.

"Our whole institution has this deep knowledge, not just in a singular person hired to do work on First Nations banking."

A federal consumer watchdog mystery shopping review from 2019 found a trend of "concerning" interactions for Indigenous and racialized customers at Canada's biggest banks, including more often getting inappropriate treatment from sales staff.

Five Indigenous staff members will run the Maskwacis FNBC branch, Lomax said. Two of those people are specifically from the local community.

Ermineskin Cree Nation Chief Joel Mykat said he sees it as setting a future offinancial sovereignty.

"To prove and show how we can take care of our own, ourselves, and to move forward in a good and healthy, positive way," he said.

"That's where my heart and soul is, and my mind is, for the seven generations of our people."

WATCH | A step towardfinancial sovereignty for First Nations in central Alberta:

A step toward financial sovereignty for First Nations in central Alberta

2 months ago

Duration 5:16

Bill Lomax, CEO of First Nations Bank of Canada, explains how the Indigenous-owned bank works within the community to support individuals and business owners.