Investing in Tangerine Bank Stocks

Updated: June 20, 2025

Tangerine Bank is a familiar name in Canada’s digital banking space, known for no-fee accounts and a strong online presence. But when financial advisors explore investment opportunities, a recurring question surfaces: Can you invest in Tangerine Bank stock?

In this article, Wealth Professional Canada will explore what financial advisors need to know about Tangerine Bank stock—including whether it’s available for direct investment. We’ll explain how to invest in Tangerine Bank and look at its investment product offerings. We’ll also cover its history and relationship with Scotiabank. This will help you see what role Tangerine Bank might play in your clients’ portfolio.

Is Tangerine a good place to invest?

Given that Tangerine Bank looks like a viable investment on paper, can your clients buy Tangerine Bank stock? Unfortunately, the answer is no. To date, Tangerine Bank has not had an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its shares ever since it was acquired by Scotiabank.

As of now, investors cannot buy any shares of stock in Tangerine Bank. The good news? Tangerine might not offer shares of its own, but there are a couple of workarounds:

• First, your clients can choose from the many products of Tangerine Bank and invest in stocks with them at competitive rates.
• Second, investors can buy shares in their parent company: Bank of Nova Scotia or Scotiabank. It ranked fourth in our list of the best Canadian bank stocks to invest in now.

Investing in Scotiabank

Buying Scotiabank stock, even for beginning investors, can be an easy decision to make since Scotiabank remains one of Canada’s Big Five Banks. It’s a well-known brand with a large client base in Canada and abroad. Scotiabank also has strong earnings. This helps support its share price and dividend payouts.

How to invest with Tangerine Bank

Since Tangerine is an online-only digital bank, it’s easy to make investments with them. Your clients can simply use their computer, phone, or mobile device to create an account. Just follow the instructions, and they can start opening an investment fund account with Tangerine. Then, investors will be able to assemble their portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual fund investments.

What products does Tangerine offer?

Tangerine Bank offers a wide range of investment products and account types that can hold investments:

• no-fee daily chequing accounts
• Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs)
• Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs)
• Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs), which Tangerine calls Guaranteed Investments

Want to know what GICs are? Watch this short clip:

Should you recommend investing in GICs to your clients? Read this article to learn more.

Tangerine Bank’s stock portfolios

Investors can also place money into Tangerine Bank’s line of stock portfolios. Here are three of them:

1. Core Portfolios
2. Global ETF Portfolios
3. Socially Responsible Global Portfolios

Let's take a closer look at each:

1. Core Portfolios

Tangerine Bank’s Core Portfolio is a low- to medium-risk investment option with 70 percent in Canadian bonds and 30 percent in stocks. The stocks are spread across Canadian, US, and international markets. It’s built for those who want steady returns and stability.

The portfolio is globally diversified, easy to manage, and has a track record of over 10 years. Returns are shown net of fees.

2. Global ETF Portfolios

According to Tangerine Bank, this portfolio is a simple, low-cost way to get exposure to a selection of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) through a mutual fund. The Balanced Income ETF Portfolio holds 71 percent in the Scotia Canadian Bond Index Tracker ETF. The remaining allocation is split across five equity ETFs, covering:

• Scotia US Equity Index Tracker ETF (18 percent)
• Scotia International Equity Index Tracker ETF (6 percent)
• Scotia Emerging Markets Equity Index ETF (3 percent)
• Scotia Canadian Large Cap Equity Index Tracker ETF (0.82 percent)
• Cash and other net assets (0.66 percent)

It has a 0.76 percent Management Expense Ratio (MER) and a unit price of $10.48 (as of June 6, 2025).

3. Socially Responsible Global Portfolios

This portfolio is designed for investors who prefer to have shares and invest in companies that reflect their values. Tangerine’s portfolio of ethical investments is meant to cater to ESG investors.

History of Tangerine Bank

Tangerine Bank is unlike most conventional banks in Canada due to it being a digital bank. It has no physical, brick-and-mortar branches. A few decades ago, Tangerine Bank did business in a different way and had a different name—ING Direct.

Tangerine Bank started in 1997. It was known as ING Bank of Canada but operated under the name of ING Direct. At that time, the bank served clients as a phone banking service that offered only savings accounts.

We could say that the ING Group was ahead of its time, since they used ING Direct as a test bed for their envisioned business model. ING aimed at offering more favourable interest rates to customers by defraying the costs of having a network of brick-and-mortar branches.

Acquisition by Scotiabank

In 2012, ING was acquired by the Bank of Nova Scotia, or what’s more commonly known as Scotiabank. This cost about $3.1 billion for Scotiabank to buy ING Direct from the ING Group. Part of the acquisition's terms was to rename the bank before May 2014.

On November 5, 2013, ING Direct Canada revealed that its name would become “Tangerine Bank” by early 2014. It was revealed that the name change was the result of a year-long qualitative and quantitative research study involving 10,000 people.

Tangerine Bank still uses the “Forward Banking” slogan that has been used by ING Direct Canada from 2012 onwards. Before 2012, ING Direct Canada used the tagline "Save Your Money”.

Now that the bank has evolved into online banking, Tangerine expanded from only offering savings accounts to mortgages. It also offers TFSAs, RRSPs, GICs, mutual funds, and chequing accounts that charge zero fees.

Today, Tangerine Bank serves over 2 million clients across Canada, employs 1,500 staff, and has $51 billion in total assets. To know more about this digital bank, check out their company profile on our website.

Why invest in bank stocks

In the past, savvy advisors and investors would choose not to invest in bank stocks, especially if there was a recession on the horizon. According to some experts, that unwritten rule no longer applies. But in general, there are a few good reasons for investing in bank stocks:

1. Banks are cyclical businesses
2. Banks are heavily regulated
3. Banks are more resilient
4. Bank stocks can be backed by investment banking

Here’s an in-depth look at each:

1. Banks are cyclical businesses

What this means is that banks follow economic cycles, so there is some measure of predictability in their behaviour. Bank stocks, being cyclical in nature, will inevitably rise during economic expansion and decline during economic downturn.

Having some predictability in a stock makes it easier for investors to create a diverse portfolio of stocks that can balance growth potential and stability.

2. Banks are heavily regulated

Few other businesses or industries are as heavily monitored and regulated as the banking industry. This became more strictly regulated after the financial crisis of 2008-2009 that threatened North America’s banking system.

Banks typically must maintain a minimum capital requirement to operate, so that makes their stock inherently stable.

3. Banks are more resilient

With rising inflation and interest rates, banks are emerging as sturdier and more profitable businesses. As such, central banks are forced to raise interest rates. This is beneficial for banks, as they can earn bigger returns on loans to businesses and households.

At the same time, more workers place their money in savings accounts. These factors can contribute to a rise in the price of bank stocks.

4. Bank stocks can be backed by investment banking

Commercial or retail banking activities are often hard-hit during recessions, but banks with an interest in investment banking can do better in these times. Banks that dabble in investment banking do mergers and acquisitions as well as debt and equity underwriting.

They also manage wealth for high-net-worth clients, handle IPOs, and take part in other large-scale financial activities. The stocks of banks that engage in these activities can mitigate a lot of risk and provide some returns, even in tough times.

When the day comes that Tangerine Bank has its IPO, advise your clients to give it some time and refer to their indicators before investing in its stock.

Will Tangerine Bank stock become available?

Whether Tangerine Bank will launch an IPO in the future is unknown. Pragmatic investors shouldn’t wait for a stock that doesn’t yet exist, especially when thousands of publicly traded options are already available.

Apart from the stocks of the Big Five banks of Canada, investors can also choose from the best Blue-chip stocks in Canada and hold them as long-term investments. Overall, it’s wiser to focus on proven opportunities rather than wait on uncertain ones.

If Tangerine Bank ever has an IPO, would you recommend investing in its shares with your clients? If not, they can also take a look at other bank stocks on our Investor Resources page.