Every year Payments Canada holds the SUMMIT, a three-day event bringing together industry, market and government to discuss the current and future state of payments in Canada.
Interac participates in conversations as varied as our product suite: money movement, commerce, real-time payments, verification, standards and governance.
Here is a peek into what Interac experts will be discussing on stage this week at the Payments Canada SUMMIT:
Broadening payment and exchange access
Today Interac facilitates over 1 billion transactions yearly through our Interac e-Transfer platform. These transactions offer consumers real-time access to funds at over 300 participating financial institutions. As we expand the Interac e-Transfer product offering, we do so with the understanding that in today’s digital-first ecosystem, new innovators in the financial industry may benefit from connecting directly to a platform that Canadians choose 2.9 million times a day on average. It is critical to Interac that faster payments are available, and we will continue to optimize the Interac e-Transfer platform to offer needed services to our financial partners and their customers.
We actively participate in industry and government discussions to advocate for reforms promoting increased competition while maintaining security in the growing Canadian payments ecosystem.
As we look to the future, Canadian consumers and businesses will benefit from new ways to transact that leverage real-time clearing and settling. We are a vendor to the in-progress Real-Time Rail (RTR), which is being built under the leadership of Payments Canada. Once the RTR is live, Interac e-Transfer will be a scheme that leverages it, but the user experience of Interac e-Transfer will remain the same.
The future of commerce
In the 24-hour economy, buyers and sellers want to transact at any time, in-store or online, using the card in their wallet or a tap of their phone. Interac is responding to this need by building enhancements to our Debit products that meet the needs of those buyers and sellers.
We are proud to create new opportunities for Canadians to transact. This includes new e-Commerce solutions to give Canadians more ways to pay with their own money when they shop online. Transit is another example; we are working with transit agencies to allow riders to board and pay with a tap of their Interac Debit card. This type of transit payment system is sometimes referred to as ‘open payments’, and our research shows that Canadians prefer this method and find it a more convenient way to pay for transit. On May 2, 2023 we announced with Metrolinx that Interac Debit is available across the PRESTO network in the GTA and Ottawa*. This follows our announcement with TransLink in Vancouver in January.
We maintain market competitiveness when compared to the costs charged by competing payment schemes, and are a measurably low-cost provider for the 1 million Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) forming the foundation of Canada’s retail economy. Alongside point-of-sale payments that SMEs need, our Interac e-Transfer for Business capabilities offer businesses fast and efficient money movement, with transaction limits up to $25K, depending on your financial institution. Our focus here is to increase interoperability and accelerate customer adoption.
Driving Canada’s value exchange
With a 36-year track record of secure payment transactions, and a network that connects 29 million Canadians through Interac Debit, Interac has expanded services to offer the Canadian marketplace value exchange beyond payments, including verification and authentication solutions. No longer are most Canadians content to verify their identity by sharing copies of government identification documents or lining up in-person. In fact, Interac research found that 69 per cent of Canadians polled expect to be able to access all government services online.
Interac has undertaken the build and expansion of some of those services for Canadians, backed by our trusted brand and security capabilities. We are building an interoperable network connecting private and public sectors and today offer three in-market solutions: Interac verification service, Interac document verification service and Interac sign-in service. Our portfolio offers businesses and governments ways to confirm a user is who they say they are, often using a trusted third-party relationship such as a Canadian financial institution to validate the required data points. Interac connects parties requesting required information and parties consenting to provide digital information. In 2022 Interac processed 368 million verification and authentication transactions.
These priority topics are key to Interac growth, and our discussions at the Payments Canada Summit are designed to galvanize our partners and expand the ecosystem for the benefit of Canadian consumers and businesses.
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*Transit agencies include: GO Transit, UP Express, Brampton Transit, Burlington Transit, Durham Region Transit, Hamilton Street Railway, MiWay in Mississauga, Oakville Transit, York Region Transit and Para Transpo in Ottawa.
