First Nations Bank closes $50-million equity financing with investment from Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation

First Nations Bank of Canada has completed a $50-million funding round, allowing the country’s only Indigenous-owned chartered bank to expand its commercial lending activities and consider entering the wealth management business.

Saskatoon-based FNBC announced a $15-million investment by Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation on Wednesday, making MCFN one of the bank’s largest shareholders with a roughly 10-per-cent ownership stake. The $50-million in total equity financing that FNBC has raised since 2024 from First Nations and Indigenous communities across Canada represents more money than the bank had raised from when it was founded in 1996 to when Bill Lomax became chief executive in 2023.

“When we look at the community, we see a lot of opportunity and a lot of need,” Mr. Lomax said in an interview. “And this is giving us some of the ability to meet some of that.”

FNBC will be able to issue “at least” $400-million in new commercial loans as a result of the funding round, he said, adding that a persistent backlog of loan applications means the bank will likely need to raise even more capital soon.

“Given the amount of growth that we have, I wouldn’t be surprised if, within the next three years, we are back out raising our next tranche,” Mr. Lomax said. “As long as the nations continue to do well, I am optimistic on that, very optimistic on that.”

He added, “There is just going to be more and more demand for what we are doing.”

FNBC’s commercial loan book grew 26 per cent in its most recent fiscal year and nearly 20 per cent the year before that.

“One of the challenges for our team has been just keeping up with the demand for loans, because we can only properly vet and book so many loans at a time and 26 per cent is already breakneck speed for us,” Mr. Lomax said.

“But we are also making bigger loans now. We have almost doubled the size of our capability to make loans over the past three years from $17- or $18-million to now up to $30-million. It is really quite something.”

The new capital will also allow FNBC to consider entering new lines of business, Mr. Lomax said. When he first joined the bank after having spent the better part of a decade with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Mr. Lomax stated an ambition to build a wealth management business that would ensure its clients could remain in charge of their own money.

“We are going to be, over the next year, doing some soul searching to figure out what is the right next step. And wealth management is absolutely very high on that list,” Mr. Lomax said. “But there are some other opportunities that are compelling as well.”

He declined to specify what other opportunities FNBC is considering, saying they are too early-stage to discuss publicly.

Following the MCFN investment, the lender is now more than 90 per cent owned by 117 First Nations and Indigenous communities across Canada. In 2025, FNBC received large investments from several communities, including the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation in B.C. and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation in Ontario.

Toronto-Dominion Bank TD-T, which was among FNBC’s founding investors alongside the Saskatchewan Indigenous Enterprise Foundation Inc. and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, remains the bank’s primary non-Indigenous investor.

“We see ourselves as a reflection of the community and this was a real shot in the arm for us and for the nations that we work with,” Mr. Lomax said. “They are kind of betting on themselves in a way.”