Happy New Year Central 1 members, clients and partners!  

As I’m sure many of you have also done over the holidays, I took some time to reflect on the past year and what it has meant for Central 1 and our members and clients.  

To me, 2025 can be characterized as a pivotal turning point. As we’ve said so many times over the past few years, the financial services industry and the credit union sector is evolving rapidly with no signs of slowing.  

As I look back at what Central 1 accomplished over the past year, I am proud to say that we have risen to meet the challenges this evolution requires head-on. While there’s still much to do in the years ahead, we made tangible progress in 2025 that I’d like to highlight and celebrate as we embark on another year of collective progress and success. 

First and foremost, operating as a partner in this evolved landscape requires a competitive outlook and an approach that earns our clients’ business every day. In 2025, we took some major steps to increase our commercial orientation and improve in these areas. 

• Strategy: With the current environmental context and a better view of the organization we must be for a long and bright future, towards the end of the year we refined and received Board approval for a new strategy. This will now guide our activities over the next three years, with the aim to be a thriving and growing national payments and treasury business.
• Governance: In June, our members voted in favour of significant governance changes. The first being the elimination of the double majority voting requirement for rules changes, which has now been replaced with a supermajority model better reflecting member share capital. Board composition changes were also favourably voted on, which are aimed at strengthening the depth and breadth of the specialized skills, knowledge, and expertise needed for effective oversight of Central 1’s business. These are monumental changes that will positively shift the way we make decisions. Board nominations for six positions are now underway, which will all be elected by our membership later this spring.
• Client engagement model: Throughout the year, we’ve shifted how we’re engaging with our credit union clients to make sure we are the strategic partner they need — not just a service provider. We are connecting differently with them by building relationships with their executive teams and digging deep on their strategic goals and focus areas. This work will continue throughout 2026, but we’re seeing significant improvements in our client relationships and in how the Central 1 team is oriented around their strategic priorities.

Evolution requires continual investment both financially and in strategic partnerships that enable us to deliver value to our clients. To achieve this, throughout 2025 we worked to increase our impact in a number of ways: 

• Client expansion: We’ve expanded our client base, onboarding major fintech clients on to our payments products, and are continuing to nurture a pipeline of non-credit union clients whose payments volumes drive revenue and investment back into what Central 1 provides for all our members and clients.
• Large client relationships: Our largest existing clients are vitally important both to our history and to our future. We’re working to establish and maintain strong, trusting relationships that can nurture mutual growth and success.
• Future opportunities: We’ve been at the table and ready to explore new opportunities and partnerships that can extend our impact and help our clients achieve more.  We are participating in discussions with Canada’s largest credit unions about payments solutions for Canadian credit unions.   We’ve continued to consider strategic partnerships with new and existing technology providers, and we have been exploring new ways to work with valued partners. 

Finally, we’re enhancing how our business operates to ensure high quality service and efficient cost structures that enable continual evolution. This is a perpetual focus, of course, but our progress in 2025 has fundamentally pivoted our organization to realize our long-term goals. 

• The Central 1 team: While nurturing our existing talent, we’ve welcomed new leaders and employees who bring perspectives and experience that will help us grow and evolve. Notably, Barclay Hancock joined early in 2025 as our new Chief Payments Officer, and in the fall, Dan Semmens joined as our new Chief Technology Officer along with  Priyal Thakrar who joined as our new Chief Financial Officer. All these leaders bring a wealth of experience in their fields and as executive leaders, and their positive impact on the organization so far is noteworthy.
• Focusing on our core: Transferring our digital banking operations to Intellect Design to see clients through their digital banking transitions was a vital step both in ensuring smooth transitions for our clients, but also in ensuring Central 1’s financial and organizational focus is on what matters for our future — our core business of payments, clearing and settlement, and treasury.
• Advancing our product and service offerings: We onboarded our first clients onto our API Platform, which revolutionizes how our clients connect to payments products and services. We’ve also continued to expand and enhance the products and services we offer including the introduction of Treasury Basic Banking, a new HISA offering. We’ve got a lot more planned for 2026 as well.
• Client guidance for the Real-Time Rail (RTR): Payments Canada’s RTR is a monumental shift for our industry and Central 1 is committed to helping our clients smoothly transition into this new era of money movement in Canada. As our industry prepares for the RTR’s launch, there are significant milestones and steps financial institutions need to take. This is a big lift for everyone, but the Central 1 team has been deeply engaged with our clients to meet upcoming milestones and be prepared for this new era of financial services in Canada.  

Of course, this list really only scratched the surface of what our teams have worked on throughout the year to continually maintain and strengthen operations in service of our clients, and the people in Canada they serve. 

Big thanks to all our members, clients, partners and employees who have brought such a big year to life. I look forward to what we will accomplish together in 2026. 

Sheila Vokey
President & CEO, Central 1