For small businesses—especially those scattered across Alberta’s rural corridors—payroll has long been the administrative equivalent of dental work without anesthesia. Even in 2025, nearly 40% of employers still pay staff by e-transfer, cheque, or even cash, simply because traditional payroll software feels too complex, too pricey, or too disconnected from the tools they actually use.
ATB Financial wants to change that.
The Alberta-based financial institution, which oversees more than $100 billion in assets and AUM, has partnered with Nmbr, Canada’s first embedded payroll software provider, to launch ATB Payroll—the first payroll platform in the country built directly into a bank’s existing business portal.
It’s a notable first for Canada’s financial sector, and one that hints at where business banking—and payroll tech—may be heading.
Payroll Without the Pain
The pitch is simple: instead of forcing small businesses to bolt on third-party payroll providers and juggle remittances, paystubs, tax filings, and accounting integrations across multiple platforms, ATB Payroll does it all from inside the ATB Business Portal.
No separate onboarding. No new systems to manage. No separate login purgatory.
By plugging Nmbr’s modern payroll APIs into ATB’s infrastructure, the bank now offers a tightly integrated experience that can calculate pay, withhold taxes, manage remittances to the Canada Revenue Agency, issue T4s, and sync with accounting tools—all while pulling live account balances.
Nmbr CEO Simon Bourgeois calls payroll “one of the biggest pain points for small businesses,” adding that embedding payroll directly where business owners already work “gives Alberta’s entrepreneurs back valuable time and control.”
A First for Canadian Banks: Two-Day Payroll at No Extra Cost
The integration delivers something rare in Canada: two-day payroll processing at no additional charge, positioning ATB ahead of the major national banks, which still require longer timelines or premium pricing for faster runs.
This isn’t just a convenience upgrade. For many small businesses that cut payroll close to cash-flow realities, real-time balance verification plus two-day payouts can significantly reduce errors and last-minute funding scrambles.
Why Banks Are Eyeing Embedded Payroll
Globally, financial institutions have started inching toward embedded HR and payroll capabilities, but Canada has lagged—largely due to the complexity of compliance across provinces and the stiff market presence of established payroll giants.
By teaming up with an API-first provider like Nmbr, ATB bypasses the need to build a payroll engine from scratch, a move that reduces risk, accelerates rollout, and appeals to business owners tired of juggling separate finance and HR tools.
ATB Ventures’ Associate Vice President Azim Esmail says the move reflects ATB’s focus on “developing and launching tools that simplify critical operations,” painting the launch as part of a larger digital innovation strategy.
Pilot Today, Broad Launch Coming in 2026
ATB Payroll is currently in a controlled pilot with early adopters, with a full rollout planned for 2026. It’s a long runway, but one that signals the bank’s intention to evolve its business platform into more than a treasury hub. Payroll may be the first step toward a broader suite of embedded financial-HR features that other Canadian banks will likely feel pressured to match.
For Canadian SMBs, especially those wary of HR tech complexity, the shift could be transformative.
If ATB’s experiment pays off—and rivals follow—payroll may finally become a chore small businesses stop dreading.
Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure. Public relations, investor relations, public policy and marketing professionals rely on Business Wire for secure and accurate distribution of market-moving news and multimedia. Founded in 1961, Business Wire is a trusted source for news organizations, journalists, investment professionals and regulatory authorities, delivering news directly into editorial systems and leading online news sources via its multi-patented NX network. Business Wire’s global newsrooms are available to meet the needs of communications professionals and news media worldwide.
