NAICS 522291Canadian industry · 6-digitnational market

Consumer lending

This Canadian industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing unsecured cash loans to consumers. However, some cash lending activities may be secured by a chattel mortgage enabling the lender to take possession of the chattel in case of default. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA
834
with employees
Under 10 employeesA
91%
most common size: 1–4
Establishments · USA
13,845
Employment · USA
85,685
6.2 per establishment
Payroll · USA
$7.3B
$85k per employee
01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–439948%
5–935843%
10–19344%
20–49243%
50–99111%
100–19910%
200–49971%
500+0—

Of 834 Canadian establishments with employees, 91% have fewer than ten — an industry of very small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario32839%
Quebec14217%
British Columbia11113%
Alberta9211%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA
Finance and Insurance, US · opened 2020
85.2%
1 year
65.1%
3 years
53.8%
5 years
38.4%
10 years
opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 522, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

national competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 522 Credit intermediation and related activities

Deposit-taking requires a charter. Non-bank lending and brokerage are the reachable end, and they depend on funding lines from the institutions they compete with.

Who sets the price
Interest-rate markets and prudential regulators.
The software it runs on
Core banking, loan origination and servicing, compliance.
03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 5222 Non-depository credit intermediation covers it.

04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

05

Who works here

The occupations employed in Finance and insurance, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. But note the shape of this industry: 91% of establishments have fewer than ten employees, and at that size most of these roles are one person wearing several hats, or bought in from outside.

All 162 occupations →

06

Alongside this industry

This is the most specific level NAICS defines. The other industries under 52229 are its nearest neighbours.

CodeIndustryEstablishments · CAWhat is known
522299All other non-depository credit intermediation1,021screened at 5222