New findings announced by Moneris Solutions, Canada's largest payment processor, reveal that "merchants who process chip card transactions are experiencing fewer chargebacks than ever before due to increased security and fraud detection. This is the first data of its kind from Canada and demonstrates that chip cards reduce fraud and chargebacks." READ MORE »

TD Merchant Services has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain MasterCard merchant acquiring accounts from First Data in Canada. Concurrently, First Data will acquire a small number of VISA accounts from TD. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in December. The transaction is not expected to be material to TDBFG’s financial results.

The acquired accounts will become part of TD Merchant Services, which already provides Visa and Interac payment processing services and Point of Sale terminal solutions to all of these customers today. “Acquisition of these MasterCard merchant accounts will ensure our clients have a single source for their payment processing needs,” says Jeff van Duynhoven, President, TD Merchant Services. READ MORE »

INTERAC has announced that it is marking "25 years of providing Canadians secure access to their money from coast to coast to coast. On November 9, 1984, a single national PIN-based network was born out of a vision to connect Canadians to their money anywhere, anytime. INTERAC's growth and evolution took off from that point and today, both consumer awareness and usage levels are almost unmatched worldwide." READ MORE »

In an article titled "Credit card giants create debit havoc", Dana Flavelle and Rita Trichur write for the Toronto Star about small merchant reactions to the introduction of Visa and MasterCard debit products into Canada.

Visa Canada has published survey results finding that "Canadian consumers welcome more choice in the country's debit marketplace. The survey, commissioned by Visa Canada between June 26 and July 5, 2009, found that three out of four (74 per cent) respondents said they would be interested in a debit card that offers enhanced features and two out of three (66 per cent) believe that consumers should have more choice when it comes to direct debit payments in Canada." READ MORE »

INTERAC, Canada’s national debit network, and China Unionpay, China’s national bank card payment network, have announced the launch of a new service that will give China Unionpay cardholders traveling in Canada the ability to withdraw cash from ATMs of participating acquirers in Canada. READ MORE »

In an article titled "RBC to offer both Visa, MasterCard products", Scott DeVeau writes for the Financial Post that "Royal Bank of Canada announced its plans Wednesday to become the first major credit card issuer in the country to offer both Visa and MasterCard products."

Canada's Interac Association has announced a partnership with INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in open-standard contactless chip technologies to develop chips containing the specifications for INTERAC’s contactless payment service. According to the companies, this partnership will enable Interac Association and its members to offer their debit card users a “next generation” retail payments solution. READ MORE »

Here's the press release on the launch of a new mobile money transfer and payment service in Canada called Zoompass.

"Canada’s three leading wireless operators, today launched Zoompass, a breakthrough mobile money transfer and payment service. Zoompass gives Canadians a fast and convenient way to send and receive money securely using their mobile phone. The service is enabled through the Zoompass application on the mobile phone which combines an easy-to-use interface with an integrated contact manager that redefines how users send and receive money. Zoompass is a better way to pay than cash, cheque, or wire transfer." READ MORE »

CBC News in Canada is reporting that Canada's three main wireless carriers are expected to launch Zoompass on Monday - a new mobile payments service that will be managed by Enstream, a joint venture the three carriers established in 2005. Using software downloaded to the mobile handsets, users will be able to send, receive and request money to/from other mobile phones. According to the company's web site, an accompanying MasterCard PayPass card allows you to make payments from your Zoompass account at POS locations. The Zoompass project involves only the wireless carriers - although partnering with financial institutions might happen in the future. Zoompass already is tweeting about itself on Twitter.

Jim Flaherty, Canada's Minister of Finance, has announced proposed new regulations on credit cards that he says are "aimed at limiting business practices that are not beneficial to consumers and providing clear and timely information to Canadians about credit cards." READ MORE »

In a press release, the Retail Council of Canada has announced that representatives of hundreds of thousands of Canadian businesses will descend on Ottawa this week for the start of House of Commons Committee hearings focused on the runaway fees merchants are forced to pay to accept credit cards.

According to the Council, "the joint House Finance/Industry Committee inquiry, which begins tomorrow, comes on the heels of hearings held on the issue by the Senate Banking Committee that concluded last week. The hearings signal the first time that credit and debit card issues have been examined by Parliament." READ MORE »

In an article titled "Credit card wars, Part 2: Cards hugely benefit merchants" in Canada's Financial Post, Visa Canada head Tim Wilson writes about why he believes Canadian merchants should embrace Visa's debit products - rather than trying to get the Canadian regulators to impose regulation and price controls on cards.

Wilson writes:

The government intervention retailers are asking for has been tried in Australia and, while business costs have decreased, Australian consumers are worse off. They have seen credit card fees increase, card benefits reduced, the introduction of surcharging at the point-of-sale and savings realized by the retailer have not been passed to consumers."

First Data has announced that it has entered into a relationship with Visa in Canada, becoming the first merchant acquirer in the country to directly participate in all three major schemes: Visa, MasterCard and Interac. READ MORE »

MasterCard Canada, in partnership with Citi Cards Canada and Bell Mobility, has completed the first near-field communications (NFC) trial of Mobile PayPass in Canada. The four month long closed trial allowed participants to use Bell Mobility's wireless network to make purchases using their mobile device at MasterCard PayPass acceptance locations across Canada. READ MORE »

In an article titled "Interac in a fight for its life", Theresa Ebden writes for Canada's Globe & Mail about how Visa and MasterCard are challenging Interac in Canada for debit card business. Merchants are concerned that debit card acceptance costs will increase if Visa and MasterCard are successful selling their debit card products to Canadian bank issuers.

In an article titled "Credit card companies should stay out of the debit card market", Craig McInnes writes for the Vancouver Sun about the costs to merchants of payment card acceptance. He discusses both the costs of rewards cards to merchants as well as a concern that replacing Interac debit cards would also increase costs to merchants. According to McInnes, "that would drive up the price of everything we buy."

In a press release, MasterCard Canada said it "has accepted an opportunity to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce in order to discuss the payments industry, as well as to address the significant misinformation being propagated by retail sector lobbyists." MasterCard Canada also has a web site on the subject of interchange fees called InterchangeTruth.com. READ MORE »

The "Stop Sticking It To Us" Coalition, representing over 200,000 Canadian businesses, small, mid and large, says it is gathering in Ottawa this week to combat overcharging by VISA and MasterCard. Speaking on behalf of the Coalition, Retail Council of Canada President, Diane J. Brisebois said, "The credit card companies are pushing to take over debit transactions and hike credit card service charges. That's bad for merchants, and bad for consumers. At a time when governments are asking Canadians to stimulate the economy by spending on goods and services, credit card companies skimming more off the top is not helping our economic recovery." READ MORE »

The Retail Council of Canada (RCC) and the "Stop Sticking It To Us" coalition, representing over 200,000 small and large businesses, said in a press release today that it "applauds the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce for announcing today that it will move forward with an investigation of Canada's credit and debit card system. The announcement follows the introduction of a motion for an investigation by Senator Pierrette Ringuette in January this year." READ MORE »

The Bank of Canada has published a working paper titled "Market Structure and the Diffusion of E-Commerce: Evidence from the Retail Banking Industry" by Jason Allen, Robert Clark, and Jean-Francois Houde.

This paper studies the role that market structure plays in affecting the diffusion of electronic banking. Electronic banking (and electronic commerce more generally) reduces the cost of performing many types of transactions for firms. The full benefits for firms from adoption, however, only accrue once consumers begin to perform a significant share of their transactions online. Since there are learning costs to adopting the new technology firms may try to encourage consumers to go online by affecting the relative quality of the online and offline options. Their ability to do so is a function of market structure.

Technology Strategies International has released a report titled "Canadian Payments Forecast - 2009" forecasting that the Canadian debit and credit card market will be hit by the decline in personal expenditure on consumer goods and services as a result of the economic downturn, but over the long term both forms of payment will command a greater share of all consumer expenditures. According to the report, "credit card payments will account for 38% of personal consumer expenditure by 2013, approximately double the share predicted for debit card payments." READ MORE »

The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) has announced that it "strongly supports Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach's recommendation to the Prime Minister to limit credit and debit processing fees. The recommendation was part of the Premier's suggested measures for inclusion in the 2009 federal budget." READ MORE »

Tara Perkins writes for the Globe and Mail about a decision by Canada's Competition Bureau allowing banks to issue both Visa and MasterCard cards in Canada.

Robin Arnfield, a Canadian banking industry reporter, has forwarded us a link to a recent article Robin wrote for ElectronicPaymentsInternational.com titled "Canada edges towards m-payments".

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) and MasterCard Canada have announced a new model credit card application form designed to help Canadian consumers better understand what they are applying for and the terminology used in the form. READ MORE »

In late September, RBC Royal Bank in Canada announced the launch of a trial of a text message-based mobile payment service called RBC Mobex. We recently heard from a colleague in Canada who's delighted with the service. READ MORE »

RBC Royal Bank of Canada, Visa and Rogers Wireless have announced they are partnering for the next phase of a mobile phone payment pilot that will allow Canadians to make purchases securely at the point of sale with a wave of their mobile phone. The customer phase of the mobile phone payment pilot is expected to launch in mid-2009, following a brief employee pilot.

Members of the Canadian payment card industry - Interac Association, MasterCard Canada, Inc., Visa Canada and many of their respective card issuers and payment processors - have released positive insight and observations from the industry trial of chip technology being conducted in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. READ MORE »

In an article titled "Coalition seeks lower price for credit-card services", Laura Severs writes for Business Edge about efforts by a coalition of card-accepting businesses in Canada to fight interchange fees.