Explore Connecting Canadians to the Digital Economy, the 2022 Interac Corporate Year in Review.
Canadians want to transact digitally, with greater choice in and control over how they pay. Businesses must adapt to evolving consumer payment preferences in order to deliver the seamless payment experiences they expect – and that is an area that Interac focused on in 2022.
Businesses of all sizes and in all industries have had to adapt and grow with the evolving needs of customers. To help businesses meet those changing needs, Interac brought Software Based PIN on COTs technology to more small businesses making it easy for them to accept payments wherever they do business in Canada. We also launched Interac Debit for e-Commerce payments with leading retailers – including Cineplex and Walmart Canada – to help deliver a more unified, omnichannel payment experience for customers. Interac launched collaborations and media partnerships promoting Interac Debit payments and supporting small businesses. That included a collaboration between Interac, Square, and Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) to bring Interac Debit payments acceptance to Scotiabank Saddledome and McMahon Stadium in Calgary. In addition to enhancing the fan experience at the stadiums, the collaboration supported small business through a contest offering local businesses prizes including onsite advertising at a home game, as well as through the Calgary Small Business Summit which brought local businesses together to network and learn.
The accelerated shift to digital payments led more businesses to use Interac e-Transfer as a payment option. In 2022, Interac e-Transfer reached more than one billion transactions over a 12-month period for the very first time in its 20-year history, with 19 per cent of those transactions involving a business. Those stats represent millions of businesses in Canada that showed their resilience, agility and creativity to pivot overnight to digital payments at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The continued growth of Interac e-Transfer signifies the increasing relevance of seamless, online, real-time payments, especially for businesses adapting to the evolving needs of customers.
Further supporting consumer demand for greater payment choice and a seamless omnichannel experience, Interac shared consumer insights and thought leadership around improving the transit ride experience. An Interac survey revealed Canadians are ready for contactless payment options on transit. Interac launched a pilot with Metrolinx in 2021 allowing transit riders to use Interac Debit contactless open payments on the UP Express, and in January 2023, TransLink became the first transit agency in Canada to enable Interac Debit payments systemwide.
Beyond broadening access to payments for Canadians and Canadian businesses today, Interac is laying the foundation for the future of payments through ongoing payments modernization efforts, including our continued engagement with Payments Canada to support the development and launch of the Real-Time Rail. In 2022, we continued to make investments to modernize our technology, including five major releases, multiple minor releases and upgrades to strengthen resiliency including telecommunication cutovers for many participants. Following a system-wide telecommunications outage that impacted the availability of Interac Debit and Interac e-Transfer, Interac took steps to deliver on our commitments to create additional platform redundancies and strengthen internal processes to enhance our capability to respond to any future external service disruptions. Ensuring our products and services are underpinned by technology and infrastructure that are resilient, reliable, available and secure, has positioned us for future growth and to meet the demands of a quickly evolving digital payments landscape.
