Travel ban crimps Vancouver fintech
BANKS WORRIED
U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order barring entry to the United States for travellers from seven countries including Iran has thrown the plans of a Vancouver- based fintech into limbo.
Iranian-born Hamed Arbabioon, who has lived in Canada since 2005 but who still travels on the passport of his birth country, isn’t sure he can proceed with the planned March rollout in the United States of his new online money transfer startup, VoPay.
Concern that his freedom of movement may be is restricted for at least the duration of the 90- day ban is concerning to both Arbabioon and the banks he’s working with.
“They are concerned if I will be able to, basically, maintain the business … because it is a kind of state of uncertainty for everyone,” Arbabioon, 38, said in an interview with the Financial Post.
“It’s a very mixed messaging out there, and no one has a clear picture of what is happening. One day they are saying no one can travel. Another day they are saying permanent residents of Canada are OK to travel. What’s really concerning is what’s going to be next?”
Arbabioon isn’t even sure he can get to Palo Alto this month as planned to work with a California-based incubator.
The travel ban, and possibly the Trump administration’s general protectionist stance, could have wider implications for Canada’s position as a launch pad and testing ground for earlystage financial technology, or fintech, entrepreneurs.
If expansion across the border into the much larger U.S. market becomes more challenging, there will be less reason to base operations in Canada, Arbabioon said.
“Canada is a small but sound market,” he said, adding that a combination of incentives for research and development and proximity to the similar but much larger U.S. market have drawn financial technology firms to the country.
As the current travel ban runs its course, Arbabioon said he will hope for the best but prepare for the worst, and he is advising others he knows from Iran to do the same.
Even after consulting with lawyers and other advisers, he says he has received no definitive answers about what the ban — which also blocks U.S. entry by travellers from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen for 90 days — means for his short- term travel plans or desire to cross the border in the longer term.
“My plan is to travel ( to Palo Alto) on Feb. 20, but I’m not even sure whether I’ll get through or not,” he said.
Before the ban, he says he frequently travelled to the U.S. with his Iranian passport and had no issues, other than needing about 24 hours advance notice in order to secure a visa.