Pace Savings & Credit Union

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PACE Savings & Credit Union was a Ontario-based credit union that grew by merging with several smaller credit unions. It expanded by acquiring GTA Savings and Credit Union (2002), McMaster Savings & Credit Union (2012), and amalgamating with Peoples Credit Union of Innisfil and ETCU Financial Credit Union around 2012–2013. It also bought Durham Educational Employees’ Credit Union and London Fire Fighters’ Credit Union in 2017. A proposed merger with Alterna Savings in 2014 was not completed, and a 2017 deal to buy City Savings & Credit Union Ltd. was not finished; City Savings later joined Alterna in 2019.

In September 2018, the regulator FSRA (then the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario) placed Pace under administration after finding evidence of civil fraud, weak governance, and possible self-dealing by leadership. Chief Executive Officer Larry Smith and his son Phillip Smith were placed on leave and later terminated. Pace left administration in January 2020 after a member vote elected a new board, but it went back into administration in November 2020 amid ongoing regulatory concerns at Pace Securities Corp., a Pace subsidiary.

In June 2020, regulators disclosed a separate inquiry into Pace Securities Corp. for selling high-risk investments, with investigations into executives at Pace Securities and enforcement actions by securities regulators. Within months, many Pace board members and the new leadership resigned, prompting a second round of administration by the regulator.

On July 11, 2022, the majority of Pace’s assets and employees were transferred to Alterna Savings under regulator oversight. KPMG is handling the liquidation of Pace’s remaining non-operational assets and liabilities, including outstanding litigation and insurance claims. Pace had about $34.5 million in revenue and $1.1 billion in total assets in 2019. Its headquarters were in Vaughan, Ontario, and its subsidiary included Pace Securities Corp. Pace is now defunct, with liquidation continuing under the regulator’s supervision.