Laurentian Bank of Canada, National Bank of Canada and Fairstone Bank of Canada said on 2 November that they had completed the previously announced transactions between Laurentian and each of National Bank and Fairstone. National Bank acquired Laurentian's retail and SME banking portfolios, and Fairstone bought all of its common shares for C$40.50 each in cash.
The share purchase closed on 1 November, leaving Fairstone's wholly owned subsidiary LBC AcquireCo with all 44,891,369 common shares; shareholders received about C$1.8 billion in aggregate. The retail and SME portfolios acquired by National Bank were valued at approximately C$3.7 billion and C$8.0 billion respectively, the banks said.
A NEW OWNER AND A NEW BOARD
Laurentian's common shares are expected to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange at the close of business on 3 November, although its Series 13 preferred shares will remain listed. Fairstone, which is indirectly controlled by Stephen Smith, has changed Laurentian's board: Smith is chair, Michael T. Boychuk is vice chair and Fairstone's chief executive Scott Wood is a director.
Laurentian has also moved its financial year-end from 31 October to 31 December to match Fairstone, so its transition year is the fourteen-month period from 1 November 2026 to 31 December 2027.
Éric Provost, Laurentian's president and chief executive, said the closing reinforces its position as a specialised commercial bank. Laurent Ferreira, National Bank's president and chief executive, said the new retail and SME clients would get access to the bank's full range of digital services, its branch network and its business banking teams.
Fairstone Bank and its subsidiaries describe themselves as Canada's leading alternative lending bank, offering mortgages, deposits and GICs, credit cards and personal loans online and at more than 260 branches. Wood called the acquisition a significant step forward in the continued evolution of Fairstone Bank, enhancing the breadth and resilience of its business.
THE END OF A LONG SEARCH FOR SCALE
Laurentian was founded in Montreal in 1846. It launched a strategic review in 2022 and ranked as Canada's eighth-largest lender as of March, according to a trade-press report on the deal. The C$40.50 price was a premium of about 20% to its closing price of C$33.76 on 1 December 2025, the last trading day before the deal was announced.
The same report described National Bank as the smallest of Canada's six systemically important banks at C$553 billion in assets, buying Laurentian's retail footprint less than a year after it acquired Canadian Western. Laurentian's branches and employees were not to transfer to National Bank, and all its branches in Québec are to close at conversion.
THE TGB VIEW
National Bank ranks 20th in the TGB Bank Rankings for the Americas and 90th worldwide, with US$411.6 billion of assets and an 11.9% return on equity on October 2025 figures. It now reports C$635 billion of assets at 31 July 2026, against the C$553 billion cited in trade-press coverage of the deal, in a market where the six systemically important banks held about 95% of the C$10.0 trillion of assets reported by federally regulated banks in July 2026. The test now is the migration of Laurentian's retail and SME products, which National Bank expected to complete by late 2026 if the deal closed on 1 November.
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