Toronto-based online brokerage and wealth management firm Questrade Financial Group has laid off an undisclosed number of employees.
Questrade has previously said that it had more than 2,000 employees globally. The layoffs were first reported by The Canadian Press and confirmed by BetaKit.
“This change is not reflective of the state of [Questrade’s] underlying businesses, which continue to be very healthy, but is intended to better align with the strategic direction of the business going into 2025 and beyond,” a spokesperson from Questrade said in an email statement to BetaKit. “The organization remains committed to its mission and to challenging the status quo of financial services in Canada.”
Founded in 1999, Questrade provides a discount brokerage platform to Canadians. Much like Wealthsimple, Questrade users can open self-directed stock-trading and investment accounts as well as managed portfolios. The company claims to have more than $60 billion in assets under its administration.
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While Questrade is making cuts, its biggest competitor, Wealthsimple, is adding staff. Wealthsimple co-founders, CPO Brett Huneycutt and CEO Michael Katchen joined the BetaKit Podcast in October to discuss the company’s journey, its recent growth, and how they plan to build “the largest Canadian financial institution.” To help it get there, the company announced plans to triple its headcount in Alberta to 105 by the end of 2025 as it recruits for engineering, product, client experience, sales, and operations roles in the province.
Questrade managed to beat Wealthsimple to the digital mortgage space with the official launch of QuestMortgage in March 2022. Marketed as a “quick, easy-to-use mortgage service,” the direct-to-consumer prime mortgage service was provided by Community Trust Company, which Questrade acquired in 2019.
However, it appears the offering was short-lived, as QuestMortgage is now offline, trade publication MortgageLogic reported this past September. The QuestMortgage landing page now reads: “We’re always looking for ways to serve our customers better. So while we’re busy making improvements, we’re unable to accept new mortgage applications at this time.”
BetaKit asked Questrade about the current status of QuestMortgage but did not receive a response by publication time.
Mortgages have been on Wealthsimple’s roadmap for years, and the company finally entered the digital mortgage space earlier this year through a partnership with Toronto-based digital mortgage startup Pine.
Feature image courtesy PiggyBank via Unsplash.
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