National Bank offers no-fee trades for direct investors

National Bank Direct Brokerage (NBDB) is eliminating commissions on the online trading of Canadian and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs with no minimum required — the first Canadian bank-owned self-directed brokerage subsidiary to do so.

NBDB is also offering options with no commission and a fee of $1.25 per contract with a minimum fee of $6.25 per transaction, the firm announced.

“We’re looking for new ways to equip and support Canadian investors, and this new $0 pricing is another step in our efforts,” said Claude-Frédéric Robert, president of National Bank Direct Brokerage, in a release.

Major direct brokerages platforms in the U.S have offered commission-free trading since 2019.

In Canada, Wealthsimple Inc., a digital investing platform that is majority owned by Power Corp., launched no-fee trading for stocks and ETFs with no minimum required in 2019. In July of this year, Wealthsimple began offering clients the opportunity to buy fractional shares of select Canadian and U.S.-listed companies, also commission free.

NBDB has been offering no-fee trading in Canadian-listed ETFs since 2016 and on U.S.-listed ETFs since 2017. Some Canadian direct brokerages peers charge no commission on the purchase of ETFs, while some others offer no-fee trading on a select list of ETFs.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.