The Digital Finance Institute was in Toronto’s Chartered Financial Analyst magazine this week about the disruption of digital currencies and FinTech innovation (here by subscription).

The Institute expressed the concern with the brain drain of some Canadian talent in FinTech launching startups in other countries because of the lack of investment in Canada in financial technology and the lack of government support for financial technology start-ups that were already here.

The Institute is hopeful that the public sector will begin to invest in a FinTech ecosystem like other countries have done, such as the UK and Singapore. In the article, we noted a June 2014 report by Macquarie Financial estimated digital disruptive technologies would cost Australian banks AU$27 billion in lost revenues annually unless they adapt to the new digital financial technology. The same is true for Canadian banks.

Like it or not, disruption of the financial sector “is going to happen, and my hope is that we are wise enough to invest in FinTech now in Canada to maintain our leadership role,” the Institute noted in the article.

“Toronto is a leader in banking and finance, and as the world of finance changes, we should be doing whatever we can to keep up with it or another city will take our leadership position.”