Bank, Auto Lender, and BFS Capital Are New Additions to Canadian Lenders Association’s Board

The Canadian Lending Association has announced today that it has three newcomers to its board: BFS Capital’s CEO, Mark Ruddock; Cox Automotive Canada’s EVP, Jerome Dwight; and BMO’s Head of Specialty Finance and Loan Syndication in Canadian Commercial Banking, Lyla Kanji.

In a statement, Kanji said that she was “excited to join the CLA board and bring my expertise in specialty finance to help provide guidance to member companies.” While Ruddock commented that “After having focused for the past few years on financial technology innovation abroad, it’s thrilling to be back in Canada, and to be supporting Canadian businesses with access to the capital they need to power growth.”

Tal Schwartz, a spokesperson for the CLA, explained that he viewed new members joining the board as an indication of maturity for the Canadian market. With BFS being an established American alternative finance company and Cox offering auto loans, Schwartz told deBanked that these companies “show that commercial and consumer financing is expanding beyond what we typically think of as an SME or as a regular borrower.”

On BMO, Schwartz was delighted to have one of Canada’s largest banks join the board. “To have a major bank join the CLA really underlines how robust and mature the alternative finance industry has become,” Schwartz noted. “For us, having BMO join is really breaking down that old world understanding of alternative versus mainstream lending and proving that there’s really just a continuum of different lending solutions depending on the profile of the borrower.”

Brendan Garrett was a Reporter at deBanked.