President's Choice Financial (french: Services financiers le Choix du Président), commonly shortened to PC Financial, is the financial service brand of the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

chain

Loblaw Companies Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners (including Loblaws), as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel. Loblaw operates a private ...

. 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 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, and cash advance fees were reinstated upon the dissolution of the CIBC partnership.l PC Financial MasterCards are embedded with PayPass technology. In November 2014, Ugo Wallet, a

mobile wallet A digital wallet, also known as an e-wallet, is an electronic device, online service, or software program that allows one party to make electronic transactions with another party bartering digital currency units for goods and services. This ca ...

app for Android was launched in partnership with

TD Canada Trust TD Canada Trust, frequently shortened to simply TD, is the commercial banking operation of TD Bank Group in Canada. TD Canada Trust offers a range of financial services and products to more than 10 million Canadian customers through more than 1,1 ...

. In addition, users can store PC credit cards on

Apple Pay Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. It is supported on these Apple devices: iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. It digitizes and can replace a credit ...

and

Android Pay Google Wallet (or simply Wallet) is a digital wallet platform developed by Google. It is available for the Android, Wear OS, and Fitbit OS operating systems, and was announced on May 11, 2022, at the 2022 Google I/O keynote. It began rolling ...

Insurance

President's Choice offers

auto insurance Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for automobile, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bod ...

and

home insurance Home insurance, also commonly called homeowner's insurance (often abbreviated in the US real estate industry as HOI), is a type of property insurance that covers a private residence. It is an insurance policy that combines various personal insura ...

, underwritten through a broker model by a number of selected Canadian insurance companies,

pet insurance Pet insurance is a form of insurance that pays, partly or in total, for veterinary treatment of the insured person's ill or injured pet. Some policies will pay out when the pet dies, or if the pet is lost or stolen. As veterinary medicine is in ...

, underwritten by SecuriCan General Insurance Company, and

travel insurance Travel insurance is an insurance product for covering unforeseen losses incurred while travelling, either internationally or domestically. Basic policies generally only cover emergency medical expenses while overseas, while comprehensive policies ...

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 "debit-like" 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. The PC Money account card can be used to collect PC Optimum points on everyday purchases, and can be used online and worldwide at any retailer that accepts Mastercard. Unlike conventional chequing accounts in Canada, the PC Money account does not use the Interac network on domestic debit transactions, as the card operates exclusively on MasterCard’s global payment network

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 The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; french: Banque canadienne impériale de commerce) is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario. ...

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). Clients performed their banking transactions on the Internet, at a PC- or CIBC-branded ATM, by telephone, or in person at pavilions located inside Loblaw-affiliated stores. President's Choice Financial consumer banking services were ranked by

J.D. Power and Associates J.D. Power is an American consumer research, data, and analytics firm based in Troy, Michigan. The company was founded in 1968 by James David Power III. It conducts surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior for the au ...

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. All PC Financial mortgages, loans, investments, and bank accounts were transferred to CIBC's new direct banking brand

Simplii Financial Simplii Financial is a direct bank and the digital banking division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). As of November 2021, the bank had almost two million clients. In 2021, Simplii Financial became the first in Canadian banking ...

effective November 1, 2017. PC Financial's credit card and insurance products were unaffected by the decision, and continued to be offered by subsidiaries of Loblaw Companies. At the time of the announcement the consumer banking products had approximately 2 million customers.

Ombudsman

As required, President's Choice Bank has an independent

Ombudsman An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...

to review customer complaints.

Points

Customers collect

PC Optimum PC Optimum is a single loyalty program operated by Canadian retail conglomerate Loblaw Companies; it was created through the merger of Loblaws' PC Plus and Shoppers Drug Mart's Shoppers Optimum programs. Launched on 1 February 2018, the program ...

reward points on purchases made with their President's Choice Financial Mastercard credit cards.

References

Footnotes

BMO closes supermarket locations

2010 Canadian Retail Banking Customer Satisfaction Study

PC Financial Online Application

President's Choice Financial FAQs

PC MasterCard

External links

President's Choice Financial

{{George Weston Limited Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Insurance companies of Canada Supermarket banks Loblaw Companies

Financial Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

1996 establishments in Ontario Companies based in Toronto Financial services companies established in 1996