What does it feel like to work at a company that’s transforming the way Canadians, businesses, and governments interact digitally?
Just ask the team here at Interac.
Interac, which has long been synonymous with facilitating secure payments in Canada, is making major progress on an increasingly important front: digital verification.
Interac Verified is our suite of verification and authentication solutions to help both businesses and consumers interact digitally, conveniently, and securely. This expansion of services underscores our commitment to developing and distributing innovative products that help Canadians verify and authenticate their data to get access to digital business and government services.
A growing list of government agencies, financial services organizations, and private sector businesses offer these services as an option to their customers for verifying and authenticating their identities. In 2022 alone, the Interac Verified product suite was used in more than 368 million transactions.
That’s just the beginning. Interac Verified has the potential to help enhance Canadians’ digital experiences and give them choice on how they verify themselves, whether in person or digitally. Some potential examples in the future could include easier customer journeys when securing a mortgage, gaining access to medical records, or traveling.
Interac is rising to the challenge of a rapidly changing digital economy
How did Interac make the leap from a payments company to a leader in the verification space? It’s in our DNA.
More Canadians are interacting digitally online, but are feeling more skeptical and sensitive around their data remaining private. A recent survey from Interac found nearly 8 in 10 Canadians polled are worried about protecting their online privacy.
Interac is also one of Canada’s most trusted financial services brands. Throughout our nearly forty-year history, we have facilitated the secure exchange of money between Canadians, businesses, governments and financial institutions. Now we’re leaning on our expertise and the trust we’ve cultivated with Canadians for our verification products.
When Canadians are offered the option to verify and authenticate themselves with Interac Verified, they can feel good knowing they’re dealing with a company that’s been helping safeguard their personal data for decades.
We have significant experience connecting various parties including banks, governments, merchants, and consumers, allowing Canadians to make payments and exchange money. Similarly, we’ve assembled interoperable networks that facilitate the sharing of information among different participants securely and efficiently. As a result, Canadians can expect a common framework and the same standards, whether they’re using Interac Verified to access business or government services.
A movement that’s bringing major benefits to Canadians and to businesses
But Interac isn’t just taking its fintech expertise and brand trust to a new market, we’re transforming the way Canadians, businesses, and governments interact online.
For individuals, using Interac Verified solutions is a more secure and convenient way to authenticate their data than traditional modes of verification like having to appear somewhere in person and share a government-issued ID. With just a few clicks, Canadians can prove they are who they say they are from the comfort of their couches or from wherever they might be.
We’re also committed to giving consumers freedom of choice in whether they want to use physical or digital methods of verification and authentication.
Take, for example, Interac document verification service. Let’s say a customer wants to open a new bank account. If the bank offers Interac document verification as an option, the customer can simply take a picture of a government-issued photo ID, as well as a picture of themselves on their mobile phone. Interac document verification service will then verify that the two are a match using one-time facial biometric analysis. All of this can be done without a visit to the bank.
Jim Balsillie, a transformative figure for the Canadian technology sector, shares another example in our Everyday Trust series: moving provinces. Currently, you have to waste time in multiple queues when moving from one province to another, as one province’s system does not recognize your identity from another province. A lot of this is solvable through digital verification, removing much of the hassle involved with moving provinces.
The public and private sectors can benefit in a big way, too. Interac Verified can help organizations protect themselves and their customers from fraud, minimize errors by reducing the manual processing of documents, and streamline compliance/KYC (Know Your Customer) work. Most importantly, organizations can give their customers peace of mind, whether they’re accessing key tax information or signing up for a membership.
A great example of this can be found in the healthcare industry. Debbie Gamble, ICD.D, Chief Officer, Innovation Labs & New Ventures and Zayna Khayat, Ph.D., Health Futurist at Deloitte Canada, have had multiple conversations about digital trust within healthcare.
“When patient data is digitized rather than tabulated manually, it not only removes the friction for the patient (how many times should you have to write down your address and date of birth?), it also improves authentication so that healthcare providers will know they’re engaging with the right person,” said Zayna.
Helping define new experiences within digital verification
With interactions increasingly moving online, Canadians are regularly being asked to digitally verify and authenticate their data, increasing the risk of identity fraud. The need for robust solutions that safeguard personal data is only growing stronger. In fact, a recent Interac study found 45 per cent of Canadian businesses will pursue new digital verification methods in six to 12 months.
Interac Verified can be deployed in a wide range of sectors to help enhance convenience and security for more seamless digital interactions. Over time, the potential use cases for Interac Verified will continue to grow. Interac, and the people who work here, are ready to help set a new standard for digital verification — and improve the lives of Canadians along the way.
Interac recently conducted a survey of close to 300 Canadian business decision makers to offer guidance on leveraging digital verification.
