EQ Bank to Acquire PC Financial: New Home for PC Mastercards

It's a big news day in the financial world – Equitable Bank (aka EQB) is set to acquire PC Financial.

Loblaws and EQ Bank have entered into a definitive agreement that will see EQB acquire President’s Choice Bank, PC Financial Insurance Agency Inc., and PC Financial Insurance Brokers Inc.

It's quite a shock – after all, who could have foreseen Loblaws ever giving up control of their valuable PC Mastercards? These companies will enter into a partnership where EQB will become the exclusive financial partner of PC Optimum. The rewards program will remain in Loblaw’s hands.

Nothing is changing in the immediate future as the deal won't close until sometime in 2026, and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

EQB’s purchase of PC Financial

The entire PC Financial division of Loblaws is being bought by EQB. The deal is estimated to be worth $800 million, and will include these 3 divisions:

• President’s Choice Bank
• PC Financial Insurance Agency Inc.
• PC Financial Insurance Brokers Inc.

In the short term, nothing will change. But, eventually, all products from PC Financial will be folded into EQ Bank once the deal is closed. You can read the full press release here.

Insights from Loblaw

We reached out to Loblaw and EQB to see what they had to say. So far, we've heard back from Loblaw.

A Loblaw representative confirmed that PC Financial customers shouldn’t expect any changes until the deal closes, likely in late 2026: "How and where members earn and redeem their points will not change, their points are unaffected, and the app will not change."

The Loblaw team stated their goal to increase value for Canadians. "This partnership with EQ Bank allows us to pair one of Canada's most loved loyalty programs and suite of financial products with a true leader in digital banking. For our members, this means we can accelerate our ability to provide even more PC Optimum rewards and a seamless, best-in-class digital experience."

What happens to PC Mastercards?

The question everyone will want answered: What happens to my current PC Mastercard?

In the short term, your PC Mastercard will stay the same. The deal still has to close. But, eventually, EQB has plans to bring all PC Mastercard holders into its own site.

What happens once everything has been migrated over to EQB? At the very least, there's likely to be a card facelift, with EQB putting their logo on the card.

Outside of that, who knows? There's a range of likely outcomes.

One possible outcome is that EQ won’t make product changes, and the cards stay as they are.

On the other end of the scale, EQB could shake up these cards, and do the one thing PC Financial never did – bonus earn rates outside of Loblaws stores. These cards have always been designed to reward people for shopping at Loblaws and other partner stores like Esso. Outside of this, they maintain basic earn rates. This makes sense, as PC wants to drive people into its own stores.

But EQB has no such restrictions – they're simply going to want the best cards for consumers that appeal to a broad audience

A model to look to for comparison is Scene+ credit cards. When Sobeys was added as a partner, Scotiabank made some changes. Most cards get a bonus rate at Sobeys stores, which is better than the standard grocery rate, while still offering cardholders bonus rates on many basics like groceries and gas.

Under the EQ banner, we could see PC Financial cards offering higher earn rates on groceries or gas bought outside partnered stores. Although we still expect bonuses for branded shopping.

How PC Mastercards currently stand

When you look at the earn rates for PC Mastercards, one thing stands out – bonus earn rates at Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Esso (except for the PC Mastercard).

If you almost always shop at Loblaws-banner stores (like No Frills or Superstore) for food and gas up at Esso or Mobil, these are excellent cards.

But if you like to mix and match your grocery stores, you have a choice to make:

• Use your PC card everywhere and sacrifice reward earnings.
• Use your PC card at Loblaws and get another card for use elsewhere.
• Opt out of PC cards entirely and get another card that covers everything.

There are credit cards out there, like the MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard and American Express Cobalt Card, that offer 4-5% back (and potentially more) at any grocery store for an annual fee under $200.

Our Genius Ratings are not overly kind to PC Mastercards, and that's simply because they don't offer rewards on broad categories. But rejig these cards to incorporate bonus rewards on certain categories while keeping the special bonuses at Loblaws? Now we're talking.

The rewards program also plays into this. And PC Optimum is popular because it's simple – go into a Loblaws store, and use points to help you buy almost anything you want. Who doesn't like free food?

But alas, until EQB reveals plans for these cards (and it likely will be quite some time before they do), all we can do is dream about what the future might hold – unless someone has a time-travelling Delorean handy.

Who is EQB, and what do they offer?

Many of you may be getting introduced to EQB for the first time. Short for Equitable Bank, EQB offers a variety of financial products under two brands – Equitable Bank and EQ Bank.

Here are some of the products offered by EQB:

• Mortgages
• Loans
• Savings
• Reverse Mortgages
• Insurance Lending

EQ Bank, on the other hand, focuses on personal savings, offering products like hybrid spend-save accounts, registered savings accounts, and GICs.

As part of their hybrid account, you get a prepaid card. The EQ Bank Card is one of our top-rated cards, offering 0.5% cash back on purchases, and it charges no foreign exchange fees.

This is the one place where EQ Bank and PC Bank have overlapping products, as the PC Money Account is a very similar product. In the short term, nothing will happen to these products. But once merged, it will be interesting to see what EQ Bank does with them.

Stay up to date on future PC Mastercard changes

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