{"id":102205,"date":"2022-10-04T13:17:47","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T13:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interac1.wpengine.com\/?post_type=content&p=102205"},"modified":"2025-05-30T19:54:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T23:54:40","slug":"an-inside-look-at-the-interac-lab-a-canadian-incubator-for-fintech-innovation","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/en\/content\/working-at-interac\/an-inside-look-at-the-interac-lab-a-canadian-incubator-for-fintech-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"An inside look at the Interac<\/i> Lab: A Canadian incubator for fintech innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Change is the only constant. At Interac, we\u2019ve long understood dynamic innovation focused on advancing knowledge, technology, and future-readiness as critical to driving Canada\u2019s economic growth and prosperity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what does innovation look like in a world that is changing, and changing quickly? With new technology constantly on the horizon, how can organizations prepare for a future that is established on continuous evolution? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the Interac <\/em>Lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located at Communitech<\/a>, the Kitchener-based tech hub, the Interac<\/em> Lab<\/a> has been enabling Interac and the Canadians it serves to become more future-ready since its inception in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An agile and nimble team, the Interac <\/em>Lab explores concepts, technologies and problem areas in payments, verification solutions and innovation. They tackle diverse scenarios and use cases built around the company\u2019s core values of trust, privacy, and convenient access to financial data and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sat down with Karam J. Yousif, Director of Emerging Solutions Delivery at Interac, to learn how the Interac <\/em>Lab team is rethinking and reshaping digital experiences that add real value to Canadians \u2014 above and beyond our best-known payment and money movement products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a mission to accelerate fintech innovation in Canada<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Led by Karam Yousif and Goran Vukancic<\/a>, the Interac <\/em>Lab is on a mission to inject a fresh outlook towards growing the Canadian digital economy \u2014 fueled by the ability to anticipate both disruption and opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Interac <\/em>Lab team may begin with a problem statement or by exploring and researching new concepts and ideas. From there, they build, test, and iterate through proofs-of-concepts and prototypes to rapidly inform new solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Karam, this iterative process \u2013 backed by primary and secondary research \u2013 helps drive the rapid ideation and validation of ideas, ultimately accelerating the development of transformative new solutions for Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connecting stakeholders to foster innovatio<\/strong>n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Communitech is home to a wealth of knowledge and public and private sector leaders in innovation, payments, and technology. Being part of the Communitech ecosystem allows the Interac <\/em>Lab team to learn from other organizations and establish organic relationships. This can lead to future co-creation and collaboration opportunities with richer outputs and value for our stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Interac <\/em>Lab team works with partners throughout the public and private sectors \u2013 industry associations, corporate teams, not for profit and government organizations or academics \u2013  to explore the potential of emerging technologies and produce mutually beneficial outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those value-rich outputs is the facilitation of a Minimum Viable Ecosystems<\/a> (MVEs). An MVE brings together multitudes of different players \u2014 and gets them all on the same page \u2014 to discover and prove different concepts from end-to-end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This brings real value as we incubate and anticipate going to market and scaling up,\u201d Karam says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations are consistently working on concepts that are increasingly complex and interconnected. Understanding and launching those complex ecosystems independently comes with costs, time, resources, and risk. However, with a successful MVE, participants can validate ideas and learn about the new ecosystem in a low-risk, constructive environment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent example is the teams\u2019 involvement in reimagining the possibilities of open banking<\/a>. The Interac <\/em>Lab established a sandbox environment that served as a reference for open banking implementation. This enabled Interac and its external partners to gain deep open banking insights through co-creation, without having to invest in the costs (and take on the risks) of building an ecosystem independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Through our work with the open banking MVE we were able to take a complex ecosystem and make it tangible.<\/p>\n– Karam J. Yousif, Director of Emerging Solutions Delivery.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Today, the Interac <\/em>Lab continues to work with the Interac team and other leaders in financial services to understand and envision what a Canadian-made open banking framework could look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karam adds that the Interac <\/em>Lab works closely with the Innovation Partnerships team<\/a> to identify and connect the right partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe facilitate many different parties to ensure we’re all aligned to our overarching agenda and priority objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenging Interac to think differently<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Interac<\/em> Lab prides itself on never creating in a vacuum. It’s all about collaboration\u2014 researching, ideating, and validating with internal stakeholders and external partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe offer our internal teams at Interac the ability to rapidly ideate and validate different scenarios and concepts. They come to us with business direction, and then we think through the challenges, constraints, and requirements to shape and deliver technical solutions for their strategic objectives,\u201d Karam explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t mean the Interac <\/em>Lab moves forward with every idea brought forward. Part of thinking differently is understanding not every project is the right one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe work in an increasingly complex and dynamic world and there is no shortage of good ideas,\u201d Karam says. \u201cSometimes the hardest part of innovation is focusing on the right idea at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Interac <\/em>Lab plays a fundamental role in helping to test new concepts. They apply an Interac lens to an abstract idea to derive insights in a quick and lean manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSaying no to an idea, and doing so quickly, means Interac can focus its efforts on ideas with winning value propositions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only does the Interac <\/em>Lab team lead internal business units to their project outcomes \u2013 whether by building tools and simulators, bringing together MVEs or pressure testing ideas \u2013 they also help establish a new way of thinking that lasts beyond the engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re working with our internal teams, we\u2019re not working in a silo. The teams are investing their time and resources into the design thinking framework,\u201d Karam says. \u201cThe business unit leaves with a better understanding of the innovation methodology they can apply themselves in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the learning is a two-way street, with the Interac <\/em>Lab team delving deeper into the business with every project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a human-centric approach with design thinking<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tackling human-centered problems is at the heart of the Interac <\/em>Lab\u2019s design thinking approach to innovation. Karam underscores that the Interac <\/em>Lab is driven and inspired by its responsibility to Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur approach is anchored in understanding the needs of Interac consumers, product teams, and partners. We\u2019re always thinking about Canadians and the experiences that resonate most with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He points to the Interac <\/em>Lab\u2019s collaboration with Ronald McDonald House Toronto as an example. When Ronald McDonald House Toronto was looking for a way to bring cashless giving back to its annual charity golf tournament, the Interac <\/em>Lab team worked with the Interac <\/em>product team to build a solution that facilitates contactless, digital and spontaneous donations through quick reference technology and Interac <\/em>e-Transfer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Karam shares another example. As conversations around the opportunities and challenges of NFTs (non-fungible tokens)<\/a> continue, Interac <\/em>Lab team worked with the Innovation & Ecosystem Engagement team at Interac to explore, test and validate the impact NFTs and NFT ecosystems could have on the future value exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through primary and secondary research, the team observed social, technical, and financial barriers of entry creators face in the NFT space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Interac <\/em>Lab team developed a proof-of-concept that educates creators about the nuances of onboarding and participating within the NFT ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThe insights we gained, combined with the real-world exploration of our proof-of-concept, could have important implications for not only our existing solutions, but on the inclusiveness of Canada\u2019s digital economy,\u201d Karam says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their learnings and insights will enable teams at Interac to engage new audiences more thoughtfully around NFTs, including through the NFT Art Gallery at Elevate<\/a>. The Gallery enables visitors to learn more about NFTS and how this emerging technology can help create equitable access for underrepresented communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n