Canada’s banking and financing sector is evolving rapidly, driven by digital transformation, fintech disruption, and regulatory change. But innovation in this space comes with complex challenges. Ayming helps financial institutions, fintechs, and service providers overcome uncertainty and unlock funding to drive technology adoption, process optimization, and sustainable growth.
Financial services
Address the key challenges
The banking and financing industry faces increasing pressure to modernize services, enhance security, and deliver seamless customer experiences, all while navigating a strict and shifting regulatory landscape. Many companies mistakenly believe that only product-based innovations qualify for government funding. In reality, programs such as SR&ED tax credits and targeted government grants reward experimentation, digital transformation projects, cybersecurity enhancements, and even failed technology pilots that pave the way for better solutions.
Fintech startups and established financial institutions alike must also contend with challenges around data governance, proof of technological advancement, and documentation that meets CRA’s compliance standards. That’s where Ayming comes in. We help you transform innovation hurdles into SR&ED claims, unlock non-dilutive government funding, and build a strategy that keeps your projects moving faster, smarter, and with less financial strain, while minimizing administrative burden.
Key Innovation Areas and Their Hurdles
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Digital Transformation & Core Banking Upgrades: Migrating legacy systems while maintaining uninterrupted service, often through cloud computing for scalability, flexibility, and cost efficiency.
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Cybersecurity & Fraud Prevention: Developing robust, adaptive security frameworks using biometrics, behavior analytics, and AI to protect against evolving threats.
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AI, Predictive Analytics & Generative AI: Powering fraud detection, credit scoring, customer insights, hyper-personalization, chatbots, automated reporting, and real-time decision-making while ensuring compliance.
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Payment Processing, Digital Wallets & Blockchain: Balancing speed, security, and user experience while enabling faster cross-border payments, secure smart contracts, and digital identity verification.
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Open Banking & API Integration: Driving collaboration with fintechs and third parties while ensuring interoperability and safeguarding data privacy.
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Sustainable Finance, ESG & Green Fintech: Implementing systems to track and verify environmental and social impact while meeting evolving compliance standards.
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Advanced Trading, Digital Assets & DeFi: Using AI, low-latency tech, and decentralized platforms for lending, investing, tokenizing assets, and optimizing portfolios.
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Emerging Technologies: Leveraging RegTech to automate compliance and exploring quantum computing’s potential to revolutionize encryption, risk analysis, and financial modeling.
These challenges require significant investment, continuous experimentation, and collaboration between technology and compliance teams, making funding a critical driver for success.
How we can help maximize your results
Although the SR&ED program is often associated with traditional R&D in manufacturing or technology, there’s a growing opportunity in the banking and finance sector due to innovation in software development, AI, data analytics, cybersecurity, and compliance systems.
At Ayming, we specialize in helping financial institutions, including banks, investment firms, fintech companies and service providers, maximize their SR&ED claims. Our deep industry knowledge ensures that even complex, tech-driven innovations are fully recognized and defensibly documented under the SR&ED program.
- Technical Expertise and Project Framing: Our experienced SR&ED consultants will assess your product and process development efforts to identify overlooked or hidden SR&ED-eligible projects. We review routine technical activities, like debugging, testing, data optimization, cloud architecture design, and integrating third-party APIs, and group related challenges to determine if they qualify as SR&ED-eligible projects. Our consultants understand the unique challenges in this sector and translate your R&D efforts into clear, CRA-compliant narratives. Whether you’re developing next-gen fraud detection or automating compliance processes, we ensure your innovation efforts are properly positioned for maximum return.
- Clarifying Eligibility for Client Work: Many financial organizations struggle to distinguish between routine contract work and eligible experimental development. We work closely with your technical leads to identify when contract-driven projects cross into SR&ED territory. Especially cases involving novel architecture, performance improvements, or advanced algorithms. Our sector-specific insight ensures you’re claiming all eligible work, even when it’s embedded in day-to-day service delivery.
- Accurate Cost Tracking: Our team helps implement cost tracking systems that align with SR&ED requirements, even in complex environments where resources are shared across departments, associated companies or contractors. We assist with time tracking, salary allocation, subcontractor documentation, and identifying eligible overhead costs. This ensures your claims are accurate, complete, and optimized, without overburdening your internal teams.
- Audit defense and compliance strategy: The SR&ED program is highly technical and continually evolving. Ayming stays current with guidance and policy updates, helping you navigate these complexities with confidence. Your SR&ED consultant will provide early warnings on audit trends and policy shifts that affect the finance and insurance sector. In the event of a CRA audit, we manage the end-to-end audit response to minimize disruption to your business. We also help establish long-term compliance strategies and processes, so future claims are smooth, consistent, and low-risk.
We help financial institutions and banking organizations unlock the benefits of Quebec’s Incentive Deduction for the Commercialization of Innovations (IDCI). This powerful tax incentive reduces the provincial rate on eligible income from qualified intellectual property assets (QIPAs) from 11.5% down to as little as 2%. To qualify, corporations must carry out R&D in Quebec and generate income from the commercialization of QIPAs, whether locally or abroad.
By combining the IDCI with strategic investments and sound financial planning, banks and financial service providers can improve capital efficiency, accelerate growth opportunities, and maximize the long-term value of their intellectual property portfolios.
Our team ensures every aspect of the program is optimized and compliant, enabling financial organizations to fully leverage tax advantages, strengthen profitability, and maintain a competitive edge.
The E-Business Tax Credit (CDAE) offers financial institutions and fintech companies a powerful way to reduce costs while accelerating digital innovation. If your Quebec-based operations include at least six full-time employees focused primarily on AI, secure digital platforms, or tailored financial technology solutions, you may qualify.
At Ayming, we guide banks, credit unions, and fintech providers through the entire process. Securing certification, maximizing claims, and ensuring compliance, so you can fully capitalize on this credit. By partnering with us, you can lower operating costs, reinvest tax savings into new digital initiatives, and strengthen your competitive edge in an increasingly tech-driven marketplace.
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