Removing global payments barriers
By Normand Provost The payments landscape across North America has transformed beyond recognition in recent years. The contactless revolution, for example, is in full swing. The volume of contactless payments in Canada alone increased by 37 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the same quarter in …
Electronic Transactions Association expands Canadian advocacy
By Jason Oxman The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is a leading payments technology trade association representing more than 500 global companies. Our mission is to grow the payments industry and we serve our member companies in a variety of ways. One of our most important roles is as leader in …
Cheque versus check
Understanding Canada/U.S. differences By Jeff Hempker When people hear that Canada didn’t roll out its cheque truncation system i.e. converting physical cheques into electronic cheques until 2014 many will say: “They must be 10 years behind the United States,” since the U.S. started its system in 2004. Actually, the opposite …
Cheques: the payments cornerstone
By Jason T. Schwabline Cheques and modern payments? Two terms that are normally not presented cohesively together. But as consumers’ behaviours move into a more digital payments realm, cheques and the ecosystem that support them have become more relevant than ever. While consumer use of cheques has leveled out, the …
Innovation can’t come at the expense of trust
By Michael Rhodes Thanks to technology companies we have new ways to communicate, buy the things we want —and sell what we don’t—to get around and have all our favourite music in our pocket. We can count on these businesses for hyper-personalization and to create new algorithms to power their …
The AI payments revolution
By Derek Colfer As consumers shift away from cash and towards digital and mobile payments, financial institutions and payments technology providers are exploring new ways to make those transactions faster, easier and frictionless. The next frontier in that evolution will be artificial intelligence (AI). AI is a computer science that …
Realizing Canadian Payments 2.0
By John Armstrong To say that Canada’s payments modernization plans or “Canadian Payments 2.0” are ambitious would be an understatement. With plans for real-time payments, data-rich transactions, more efficient standards and open-banking platforms, these initiatives will revolutionize how Canadians transact: much to the benefit of businesses and consumers alike. These …
A sound solution for mobile payments
By Steve Doswell Mobile payments have come a long way in a relatively short amount of time and have solidified their place amongst mainstream payment methods. Their share of the payments market will now quickly accelerate. Here’s why. Consumer comfort. Mobile bill payment has gone from exclusively serving the tech-savvy …
Invisible payments are taking the lead
By Paul Parisi Convenience has long been the driver of payments innovation. As customers crave greater ease in the ways they pay, the industry has responded with fast, easy, secure and seamless payment options. These factors have combined to usher in invisible payments. Invisible payments take traditional payment methods such …
Mobilizing Canadian payments
By Hans Kelso The financial marketplace in Canada is a fundamentally conservative environment, with the majority of Canadians conducting their business with a small number of large institutions, buttressed by the near universal accessibility of the Interac network. It should then be no surprise that mobile payments, and more generally …