Canadian open banking and your AI assistant

Canada is building consumer-driven banking, the Canadian name for open banking, so that you decide which services may see your financial data, and Era already gives you the result: your own Canadian accounts, connected to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta's Muse, with your approval at every step. This guide explains what the framework is for, what it means for your AI assistant and how to use your banks with one.

What is open banking in Canada?

Open banking in Canada is called consumer-driven banking. It is a federal framework, led by Finance Canada, under which you can tell your bank to share your account data with a service you choose, for a purpose you approve, and take that permission back whenever you want. The aim is to replace passwords and screenshots with approved, accountable access.

The practical idea is simple. Your data belongs to you, so you should be able to move it to a tool that helps you, in the same way that you can move your phone number to a new provider. The framework adds rules about who may receive the data, how they must protect it and how you can withdraw your consent.

Why does open banking matter for an AI assistant?

An AI assistant is only as useful as what it can see. With no connection, Claude or ChatGPT can only reason about numbers you type in. With an approved connection, it can answer questions about your real chequing balance, your credit card, your mortgage and your investments, in the same sentence, and remember what you told it last week.

That is why the bank-approved route matters. Sharing a bank password with an app has always been a poor trade, and the framework is designed to end it. A connection you approve in your bank's own sign-in, limited to reading, and withdrawn with one click, is what an assistant needs to be both useful and safe to use.

Can you connect your Canadian bank to Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes. You do not need to wait for the framework to finish rolling out. Era connects your Canadian accounts through regulated connections, you sign in on your bank's own secure screen and approve read access, and Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Muse then all answer from the same accounts. Era never stores your bank login.

The sections below show which banks Era connects and what to ask once you are set up. Live connections are part of Era's paid plans, and the free Basic plan lets you add accounts by hand or bring in statements and ask the same questions.

Which Canadian banks and brokerages can you connect?

Era connects the big five banks, the largest credit union group in Quebec, the leading digital banks and the main investing platforms, so most Canadians can bring their everyday accounts, their cards and their registered savings into one place. The table below lists each one and shows where to start.

What can you ask once your Canadian accounts are connected?

You can ask the same everyday questions you would ask a very patient friend who has your statements in front of them, from how much you spent on groceries to how much you put into your registered accounts. Here are a few that Canadians ask:

• "How much did I put into my TFSA, RRSP and FHSA this year?"
• "What did I spend on groceries, restaurants and transport across all my cards in the last three months?"
• "Which subscriptions renew this month, and which have gone up in price?"
• "How much interest am I paying across my credit cards, and what would clearing the highest one first save?"
• "Pull together what I need for my taxes: T4 income, T5 interest and the RRSP receipts."

Era's Document Library helps with the last one. It reads the statements and slips you upload, files them, and lets you bring the transactions in a statement into a manual account, so your tax paperwork sits with your live accounts and every assistant can answer from it.

How does Era keep your bank connection under your control?

You approve each connection and each assistant separately, Era reads your accounts by default, and you can remove an assistant or a bank from Era Context at any time. Era keeps a record of what each assistant has asked for, so you can see what has been read.

Where an assistant can change something in Era, such as a category or a rule, it asks first and you approve it. Money movement between your accounts is in private beta, off by default for every key, and every transfer needs your approval.

Which assistants work with Era in Canada?

Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta's Muse all connect to Era, and Poke connects by text message. You can use one or all of them, and what you tell one is remembered by the others, because the memory belongs to Era and not to any single assistant.

The guides for Claude and ChatGPT walk through the setup in about five minutes each, and what is MCP explains the standard that makes this possible. Era connects accounts across the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and 40+ countries in all, so the same account follows you if you move or hold money in more than one country.

How do you choose between Era and a budgeting app in Canada?

If you want one app with its own screens, Monarch, Wealthsimple and KOHO each offer one. If you would rather ask the assistant you already use, and keep your financial memory with you when you change assistants, Era is built for that.

The comparison Era, Monarch, Wealthsimple or KOHO? sets them side by side, and if you are leaving Mint behind, see the best Mint alternative in Canada for 2026.