President's Choice Financial

President's Choice Financial

200px
Type	Bank
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1996
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario
Number of employees	1097
Website	pcfinancial.ca

President’s Choice Financial (French: Services financiers le Choix du Président) is a banking service provided by Loblaw Companies (a supermarket chain). Several different organizations provide individual financial services under the President's Choice Financial umbrella:

• Most standard bank products (cheque accounts, savings accounts, loans, mortgages) are provided by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).
• MasterCard services are provided by President's Choice Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Loblaw Companies.
• Insurance is provided by PC Financial Insurance Brokers Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Loblaw Companies.

PC Financial does not offer business banking services. PC Financial has no branches; rather, customer interactions are carried out over the Internet, the telephone, at automated teller machine (ATMs) or in at pavilions located inside Loblaw-affiliated stores. In January 2009, there are 234 pavilions in Canada.

President's Choice Financial was ranked by J.D. Power and Associates as having the highest customer satisfaction among mid-size Canadian banks in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.

The joint venture between Loblaws and CIBC started in 1996. PC Financial offers lines of credit, loans, Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSPs), and mortgages. Services are available in all Canadian provinces, except Quebec. Because PC Financial is part of the direct banking division of CIBC, its bank number is the same as CIBC (010). PC Financial accounts are all located under one transit/branch number (30800).

To benefit from its low-cost, "no-fee" structure, clients perform transactions on the Internet, at an ATM, or by telephone.

Between January 2001 and October 2005, banking services for PC Financial were provided by Amicus Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of CIBC. Outside of those dates, banking services were provided by the direct banking division of CIBC. Amicus is now a division of CIBC Retail Markets and is no longer a separate legal entity.

The bank has approximately 2.3 million customers.

Memberships

PC Financial, through CIBC, is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) and registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks.

Services offered

• Deposit accounts
  • No Fee Bank Account
  • Interest Plus Savings Account
• Lending
  • Lines of Credit
    • Borrowing Account
    • Secured Borrowing Account
  • Loans
    • All-Purpose Loan
    • RRSP Loan
  • Other lending
    • Mortgages
• Registered Products
  • Daily Interest Investment Account
  • Registered Interest Plus Savings Account
  • Registered GIC
  • Tax-Free Savings Account
• Investments
  • GICs
  • Mutual funds (through CIBC Securities)

MasterCard

The President’s Choice Financial MasterCard credit card is issued by President's Choice Bank, a subsidiary of Loblaws. PC MasterCard has no relationship to CIBC, although cash advance fees are waived at CIBC bank machines.

PC Financial MasterCards are embedded with PayPass technology.

Insurance

President's Choice offers auto insurance and home insurance, underwritten through a broker model by a number of selected Canadian insurance companies, pet insurance, underwritten by SecuriCan General Insurance Company, and travel insurance 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.

PC Points

See also: PC Points

President's Choice Financial products offer reward points (called PC Points) through various channels depending on the product (e.g., making purchases on the PC MasterCard, setting up direct deposit to a PC Financial bank account, renewing insurance, etc.) PC Points are provided by President's Choice Services Inc.

Footnotes

1. ^ BMO closes supermarket locations
2. ^ 2010 Canadian Retail Banking Customer Satisfaction Study
3. ^ PC Financial Online Application
4. ^ President's Choice Financial FAQs
5. ^ PC MasterCard

See also

• List of banks in Canada
• President's Choice

External links

• President's Choice Financial