Fewer than half of big-city Canadians opened a new account this year: study
Newcomer acquisition has been “a meaningful strategy for many Canadian banks,” she said, especially in major urban markets.
She said fewer newcomers entering the system would leave banks competing harder for a smaller pool of new accounts.
According to Statistics Canada, the national population stood at an estimated 41,417,056 on April 1, 2026, a decline of 55,025 people, or 0.1 percent, from the start of the year, and Canada admitted 83,149 permanent immigrants in the first quarter, down 20.2 percent from 104,210 a year earlier.
Ottawa has moved to curb that intake.
Under the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada set permanent resident admissions at 380,000 a year through 2028 and capped new temporary resident arrivals at 385,000 in 2026.
