Best business bank accounts in Canada

For most small businesses, EQ Bank’s Business Account is the strongest all-rounder: $0 a month, 2.25% interest on the entire balance, free CRA payments, and — rare among challengers — open to registered sole proprietors as well as corporations. If you’re incorporated, Wealthsimple Business Chequing is a close second with unlimited free e-Transfers and interest that climbs with your combined personal and business assets. If your business handles cash or needs a branch, no challenger does that — start with a big bank’s $5–$7 digital tier instead.

Corporations only. Wealthsimple requires a CCPC (or CRA-registered charity/association) with a single ownership layer and a federal business number — it explicitly does not support sole proprietorships or partnerships. The account itself is $0 a month with unlimited e-Transfers, free CRA tax payments, up to 8 sub-accounts, and 1.25%–2.25% interest tiered by your combined personal + business assets at Wealthsimple — so it’s strongest if you already invest there. Wealthsimple states $100,000 of CDIC protection per business entity.

It depends on the model — there are three tiers. Direct CDIC members (EQ Bank) insure eligible deposits to $100,000 per category, and Wealthsimple states the same per-entity coverage through its custodians. In-trust fintechs (Float at Scotiabank, Venn at BMO, Loop at an unnamed partner) aren’t banks — your money sits in trust at a CDIC member and coverage flows through that arrangement. Safeguarding-only providers (Wise) have no deposit insurance at all — funds are held separately from the company’s own money, but nothing pays out if the provider fails. One more nuance from CDIC itself: a corporation is its own depositor with separate coverage, but a sole proprietorship is not — its deposits combine with the owner’s personal deposits at the same institution. See our CDIC guide.

At the big banks, no — not one tier at any of the six majors pays interest on business chequing (we checked every fee schedule). That’s the challengers’ whole pitch: Float pays 2.5% (currently up to 3.5% with a first-year bonus), EQ Bank pays 2.25% on every dollar, Wealthsimple 1.25%–2.25%, and Venn 2% on both CAD and USD. On a $50,000 operating float, that’s roughly $1,000–$1,250 a year the big banks simply don’t pay you.

Cash is the challengers’ blind spot — none of the online accounts accept cash deposits. At the big banks, cash costs $2.25–$5.00 per $1,000 deposited beyond your plan’s allowance (TD’s digital tier is the steepest at $5.00/$1,000, with none included). If you’re cash-heavy, you genuinely need a big-bank mid-tier (TD Business Essential includes $5,000/month, Scotiabank Plan A $6,000) or a credit union — and the smart setup is often a hybrid: a branch account for deposits, with the surplus swept to an interest-paying challenger.

Legally, a sole proprietor operating under their own name can run the business through a personal account — but the CRA expects clean records, and mixing business and personal transactions makes bookkeeping, GST/HST filing and audits painful. If you operate under a registered trade name, you’ll generally need a business account to deposit cheques written to that name. The catch: several challengers are corporations-only. The sole-prop-friendly picks here are EQ Bank (best rates), Venn and Wise — or a personal no-fee account from our chequing ranking while you’re very small.

In three provinces the guarantee is actually stronger than CDIC: credit-union deposits in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba are 100% guaranteed with no dollar limit by their provincial corporations (CUDIC, CUDGC and DGCM). Ontario’s FSRA covers eligible non-registered deposits to $250,000 — still 2.5× the CDIC limit. For a business sitting on large cash balances, a Manitoba credit union like Assiniboine (whose Basic Business account is $0 a month) is a legitimately compelling parking spot. The trade-off is usually clunkier digital banking and per-transaction fees.

Every figure was verified at the provider’s own product page or fee schedule on June 9, 2026 — and business banking is changing fast right now: Wealthsimple’s business account launched in 2026, BMO and TD renamed their whole business lineups, Vault rebranded to Venn, Motive Financial was absorbed into National Bank, and National Bank raises its business-package fees on August 1, 2026. Where a figure couldn’t be verified at the source (Vancity, Coast Capital, Manulife and Oaken business rates), we left it out rather than guess. Treat this as a shortlist and confirm current terms before opening. See our methodology.