Scotiabank Opens Digital Factory in Toronto

Scotiabank has opened its Canadian Digital Factory in downtown Toronto, adding to its existing network of labs in the Pacific.

Located just a few blocks away from its global corporate headquarters, the 70,000 square foot facility will serve as the headquarters for the bank’s similar digital labs in in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia.

The inauguration comes just months after the financial services firm teamed up with QED Investors to promote fintech startups in Latin America.

The lab will host 350 digital, design, engineering, and agile experts, whose focus will be developing technology solutions that will dramatically improve customer experiences. In other words, the network of labs will serve as incubators for new products and services for the Canadian bank’s 23 million customers around the world.

The digital factories will collaborate with each other, as well as with fintech startups that Scotiabank is looking to invest in Latin America. This new factory represents a giant step towards the exploration of the financial technology market and the speeding up the development of online and mobile banking solutions for its customers.

With digital banking becoming a norm across the developed world, banks are scrambling to get ahead with financial technology. Over the past 18 months, Scotiabank has invested millions of dollars in new technologies such as analytics and machine learning.

The digital factory houses a games room, workout facilities in addition to a bowling alley. To ensure security, the lab has employed a contactless biometric security access solution that captures and matches four fingerprints with a single hand movement.

The physical framework of the lab is designed to meet the “need for a creative, agile and fun work environment,” says the bank.

“These creative workspaces are inspiring and encouraging entrepreneurism, accelerating delivery times and allowing our teams to sharpen their focus on meeting the needs of our customers,” said Brian Porter, President and CEO, Scotiabank.