Tangerine Bank (
operating as
A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
Tangerine) is a Canadian
direct bank A direct bank (sometimes called a branch-less bank or virtual bank) is a bank that offers its services only via the Internet, email, and other electronic means, often including telephone, online chat, and mobile check deposit. A direct bank has no ...
that is a subsidiary of
Scotiabank
The Bank of Nova Scotia (french: link=no, Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse), operating as Scotiabank (french: link=no, Banque Scotia), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada ...
. It offers no-fee
chequing and
savings accounts
A savings account is a bank account at a retail bank. Common features include a limited number of withdrawals, a lack of cheque and linked debit card facilities, limited transfer options and the inability to be overdrawn. Traditionally, trans ...
,
Guaranteed Investment Certificate
A guaranteed investment certificate (GIC, french: links=no, certificat de placement garanti, CPG) is a Canadian investment that offers a guaranteed rate of return over a fixed period of time, most commonly issued by trust companies or banks. Due t ...
s (GICs), mortgages and mutual funds (through a subsidiary). Many savings and investment products are eligible for registration under a
Tax-Free Savings Account
A tax-free savings account (TFSA, french: links=no, Compte d'épargne libre d'impôt, CELI) is an account available in Canada that provides tax benefits for saving. Investment income, including capital gains and dividends, earned in a TFSA is n ...
(TFSA),
Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) or
Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF).
The bank was founded by
ING Group
The ING Group ( nl, ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale bankin ...
in April 1997 as ING Bank of Canada (operating as ING Direct).
In November 2012, it was acquired by Scotiabank.
The new name for the bank was revealed in November 2013, and the Tangerine branding was rolled out beginning in April 2014.
Although now wholly owned by Scotiabank, Tangerine remains a separate legal entity and thus kept its unique
Institution Number (614), with all accounts being under a single transit number (00152).
History
The predecessor of Tangerine, ING Bank of Canada (using the
trade name
A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
ING Direct), was founded in April 1997 and operated as a telephone banking service offering savings accounts. It was the first test market for ING Group's direct banking business model, where the aim was to offer more favourable rates to customers by avoiding the costs of running a network of branches. Dutch actor
Frederik de Groot
Frederik Percy de Groot (born 23 May 1946 in Bilthoven) is a Dutch actor. In the Netherlands he appeared in the detective series ''Bureau Kruislaan'' and its spin-off '' Unit 13''.
Biography
He is best known, however, in Canada where he was th ...
served as the company's spokesperson in ING Direct Canada television commercials.
As the bank expanded into online banking, it also grew to offer mortgages,
RRSPs,
TFSAs, GICs,
mutual funds
A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV i ...
and no-fee chequing accounts. In November 2013, ING Direct Canada claimed over 1.8 million customers, employed almost 1,000 people and held close to $40 billion in total assets.
Acquisition by Scotiabank and name change
In November 2012, Scotiabank completed the acquisition of ING Direct Canada from
ING Group
The ING Group ( nl, ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale bankin ...
, the Netherlands-based parent company of ING Direct Canada, in a CAD$3.1 billion deal first announced in August 2012.
As part of the terms of the deal, the bank was required to change its name from ING Direct before May 2014.
On November 5, 2013, ING Direct Canada revealed that its name would be changed to Tangerine in early 2014.
The bank stated that the name change was the culmination of a year-long consultation process involving more than 10,000 people in qualitative and quantitative research.
Tangerine continues to use the 'Forward Banking' tagline that had been used by ING Direct Canada from 2012 onwards. Prior to 2012, ING Direct Canada had used the tagline 'Save Your Money'. On November 19, 2015, Tangerine was named by Waterstone Human Capital as one of Canada's 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures of 2015.
Products and services
Tangerine offers the same services that had been provided by ING Direct Canada, namely savings accounts, chequing accounts, mutual funds and mortgages. Tangerine's mutual funds (marketed as 'portfolios') are based on an
indexing strategy, each tracking a weighted combination of three or four equity and/or bond indices.
In 2016, Tangerine began to offer a
Mastercard cash-back credit card, which provides customers up to 2% cash back on certain purchases.
Tangerine's banking app is available to customers through
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
,
Android,
Blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
and
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants.
Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...
. Support was also available for
Wear OS
Wear OS (also known simply as Wear and formerly Android Wear) is a version of Google's Android operating system designed for smartwatches and other wearables. By pairing with mobile phones running Android version 6.0 "Marshmallow" or newer, or ...
and
Apple Watch
Apple Watch is a line of smartwatches produced by Apple Inc. It incorporates fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates with iOS and other Apple products and services. The Apple Watch was rel ...
but was discontinued on February 29, 2020. The apps allows Tangerine customers to view their account balances and transactions, make transfers, find
ABMs and deposit cheques by taking a picture.
As a result of the Scotiabank acquisition, Scotiabank ABMs and those of other banks in the
Global ATM Alliance
The Global ATM Alliance is a joint venture of several major international banks that allows customers of their banks to use their automated teller machine (ATM) card or debit card at another bank within the alliance with no international ATM access ...
became free for Tangerine customers to use, starting in June 2014. As of September 28, 2014, Tangerine withdrew from
The Exchange, its previous network of no-charge ABMs.
Locations
Operating without traditional bank branches, ING Direct Canada instead opened a small network of ING Direct Cafes for its face-to-face contact points. The first café opened in Toronto in 1997, with a further three opening in Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary, as well a second Toronto location.
Under Scotiabank ownership, the bank continued to operate these cafés (rebranded under the Tangerine name). From time to time, the bank also opened temporary
pop-up locations to help promote its products.
In its 2020 public accountability statement published in early 2021, Tangerine announced that it had decided to permanently close all of its cafés, except for the Toronto North café located in its head office. All locations had been closed temporarily throughout the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
See also
*
List of banks in Canada
This is a list of banks in Canada, including chartered banks, credit unions, trusts, and other financial services companies that offer banking services and may be popularly referred to as "banks".
The "Big Five"
Canada's "big five" banks, ...
*
Alterna Bank
CS Alterna Bank (french: Banque CS Alterna), operating as Alterna Bank (french: Banque Alterna), is a Canadian direct bank and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ontario-based credit union Alterna Savings. The bank offers chequing and high-interest ...
*
Alterna Savings
Alterna Savings and Credit Union Limited, commonly called Alterna Savings (french: Caisse Alterna), is a credit union based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In addition to its credit union branches in Ontario, it also operates across Canada through i ...
*
Motive Financial
Canadian Western Bank (CWB; french: Banque canadienne de l'Ouest), also operating as CWB Financial Group, is a Canadian bank based in Edmonton, Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. The bank serves clients both in Western Canada and in other provinces.
T ...
*
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 ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Canadian banks
Scotiabank
1997 establishments in Ontario
Canadian companies established in 1997
Banks established in 1997
Banks of Canada
Online banks
Mortgage lenders of Canada
Companies based in Toronto
Financial services brands
Neobanks