Interac is pleased to share its response to the Government of Canada’s 2024 Budget. This budget marks a significant step in promoting innovation and competitiveness in payments and financial services, while ensuring the proper safeguards are in place for Canadians in the evolving digital economy.
Strengthening Mortgage Income Verification
The federal budget’s commitment to combatting fraud in the mortgage sector reflects a proactive effort to preserve transaction integrity and lay the groundwork for improved digital services in Canada. With mortgage documents often completed online, the challenge of verifying information digitally remains, often necessitating the use of physical documents via email or text.
Interac supports the government’s plan to collaborate with industry and the Canada Revenue Agency on a tool to verify borrower income. This can enable data sharing through secure digital verification methods already used by the government and financial institutions. The benefits of digital verification and authentication have application beyond mortgages, offering a means for Canadians to access and share their information securely across multiple public and private sector services.
Single Sign-In Portal for Government Services
Interac also acknowledges the government’s commitment to establish a modern, single sign-in portal for federal government services. As Canadians look to access nearly all government services online, simplifying the sign-in process while reducing the reliance on passwords will help support fast and efficient delivery of government services and programs.
Advancing Consumer-Driven Banking
The announcement of a framework for consumer-driven banking is welcome news and a reflection of the work done by both government and industry over recent years. The government’s framework addresses the principles that can support the success of open banking in Canada, namely ensuring data can flow and that consumers remain in control with clear provisions for granting and revoking consent. In a 2024 survey conducted by Interac, 65 per cent of Canadians indicated that they welcome the potential of open banking to give them more control of their financial data. The survey also found that confidence would be enhanced if users had the ability to revoke consent. Interac encourages the introduction and passage of legislation enabling consumer-driven banking so that Canadians can utilize the benefits of payment sector innovation, without compromising privacy and security.
