Debbie Gamble, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Interac Corp. in conversation with David Coletto, Founder, Chair and CEO of Abacus Data.SUPPLIED
Canadians are rapidly adopting digital financial services, creating new opportunities as well as challenges.
As the country increasingly swaps cash for entirely digital alternatives, the barriers between individuals and businesses and their money are falling, enabling convenience through technology, but that could add new security and fraud challenges to the equation.
The move to a digital-everything future in financial services is already beginning, explains Scott McDonald, Founder and President of The Future of Money Conference.
Scott McDonald, Founder and President of The Future of Money Conference.SUPPLIED
“Only one out of 10 transactions in Canada is done with paper money and that number continues to decline by about 10 per cent each year,” he says. “The branch of the future is no branch. The ATM of the future is no ATM. So, if we play forward this confluence of a cashless, cardless, branchless monetary system we can start to see the demise of high-friction banking and the rise of optionality.”
As customers demand more seamless payment options, however, they’re also requiring greater security, a feature which has historically added necessary friction.
“They don’t want to stop [digitally] communicating with their friends, their colleagues or family, but they want to put the walls up,” explains Dr. Ann Cavoukian, founder and CEO of Global Privacy & Security by Design and the former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. “They want to prevent unauthorized third parties from gaining access to their data.”
Dr. Ann Cavoukian, founder and CEO of Global Privacy & Security by Design and the former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.SUPPLIED
To modernize its economy and become a global leader in payment innovation, Canada needs to make advancements in real-time account-to-account payment infrastructure and enhance fraud detection and prevention solutions.
“That’s why we’re continuing to work with Payments Canada and its other delivery partners to advance the Real-Time Rail (RTR) project, which will bring new opportunities for Canadian businesses,” says Debbie Gamble, chief strategy and marketing officer at Interac Corp. (Interac). “We feel great about the team approach among the companies to accelerate real-time payments in Canada.”
As it approaches its 40th anniversary Gamble says that Interac — which has helped shape the evolution of financial technology in Canada for generations — is now focussed on enhancing Canada’s digital maturity by bridging the online divide, while leveraging emerging technologies to enable secure and seamless transactions in a connected world.
“Interac is playing a pivotal role as the Canadian financial system stands at the cusp of significant transformation, positioning Canada as a leading digital economy alongside our G7 peer countries,” she says. “We’re empowering Canadian businesses to embrace the global shift toward digital payments by offering innovative solutions that streamline operations, reduce manual processes, and improve customer experiences.”
Though Canadian businesses have historically been slow to adopt leading edge payment solutions, the pandemic has inspired a new level of digital adoption, creating a new appetite for innovation according to Canadian entrepreneur Manjit Minhas, CEO and co-founder of Minhas Brewery, Distillery and Winery.
Manjit Minhas, CEO and co-founder of Minhas Brewery, Distillery and Winery.SUPPLIED
“Every business has to be rooted in technology,” she says. “[When businesses] start using technology, then people start connecting with your customers differently, they start marketing differently and they really start using a lot of different tools that maybe they weren’t confident using before.”
Yet as businesses integrate more technology into their operations, ensuring security and maintaining customer trust become critical concerns.
“When I think about the opportunity that technology presents, on the one hand it presents a challenge to their security, so people are going to look for things that give them confidence,” adds David Coletto, the Founder, Chair and CEO of Abacus Data. “When it comes to digital prosperity what Interac does [is] make payments and the interaction between people at a financial level secure and trusted, but then also gives them more control.”
David Coletto, the Founder, Chair and CEO of Abacus Data.SUPPLIED
Interac already has a strong track record when it comes to propelling the country’s digital payments infrastructure forward. For example, it debuted in 1984 with Canada’s first electronic payment network, allowing Canadians to make cash withdrawals from machines outside their own bank’s network for the first time.
Ten years later, Interac launched direct payments, making Canada a global leader in debit card usage. A few years after that Interac introduced Interac e-Transfer, and later became the first in the world to offer contactless tap-and-pay functionality on debit cards. All told, the company now processes over a billion Interac e-Transfer transactions per year.
As the world of payments becomes more digital and as Canadian businesses embrace more of those next-generation payment technologies, Gamble says Interac will continue to use the latest technologies to make payments simultaneously more convenient and secure.
“As digital wallets, instant payments, and frictionless experiences become the global standard, Interac continues to innovate, ensuring that Canadian businesses and organizations stay competitive by integrating advanced payment and verification solutions in a digital economy,” she explains. “In collaboration with participants across the financial ecosystem, Interac will help drive financial inclusion, offering innovative tools that empower all Canadians to participate in the economy, regardless of geographic or socio-economic barriers.”
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Interac. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.