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VersaBank

Canadian bank

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ2045484
Source-derived summary

VersaBank is a Canadian chartered bank headquartered in London, Ontario.

Formerly known as the Pacific & Western Bank of Canada, it was founded as a trust company in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1980 and later moved its head offices to London, Ontario. On August 1, 2002, it was granted a Schedule I Canadian chartered bank licence by the Canadian federal government, the first in approximately 18 years. The bank is publicly traded as VBNK on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and on the Nasdaq.

History

In 1993, David Taylor and a group of investors acquired Pacific & Western Trust, a small trust company with six branches and a need for capital investment, and transformed it into the world's first branchless, electronic bank. In 2002, it became a Schedule 1 bank.

By 2013, the bank became Canada's tenth largest publicly traded bank when it began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The bank's deposits are raised digitally by way of a comprehensive broker network situated throughout Canada. In 2016, there were over 120 deposit broker firms raising its deposits, including many of the in-house brokerage firms of the big six Canadian banks. Its lending portfolio consists of commercial and corporate lending, real estate and development financing, and an innovative, electronic receivable purchase program.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “VersaBank” as canadian bank. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around VersaBank, Canadian and bank.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 2002, 1993, 2013—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with VersaBank, Canadian and bank providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “VersaBank”, the useful work is to connect “canadian bank” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2045484. VIAF identifies the subject as 124272948. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 2002, 1993 and 2013.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “VersaBank”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow VersaBank primary sources, VersaBank archive and VersaBank research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “VersaBank”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from VersaBank” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.