{"id":163779,"date":"2024-04-23T12:25:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T16:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interac1.wpengine.com\/?post_type=content&p=163779"},"modified":"2025-05-30T16:10:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:10:43","slug":"faster-modern-payments-for-a-digital-first-canada-whats-the-state-of-progress","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/en\/content\/business\/faster-modern-payments-for-a-digital-first-canada-whats-the-state-of-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Faster, modern payments for a digital-first Canada: What\u2019s the state of progress?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Canadian businesses and consumers increasingly expect<\/a> real-time payment experiences that take the friction out<\/a> of their online transactions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when Canada\u2019s productivity growth is lagging<\/a> behind that of its peers according to some measures, there is increasing evidence that the advancement of faster, more seamless payments and financial innovations can spur economic growth and competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to the payment processing needs of Canadian enterprises, some of the pain points are quantifiable: Traditional payment methods (such as cheques and electronic funds transfers [EFTs]) cost Canadian businesses an estimated $2.9 to $6.5 billion annually<\/a> due to inefficient, labour-intensive processing, difficulty tracking payments and limited visibility into cash flow. An Interac survey from 2018<\/a> found that 46 per cent of business decision makers find reconciling payments to be time-consuming, and a roughly equal amount (45 per cent) acknowledged that many payment processing activities can be tedious. A recent C.D. Howe report<\/a> estimated the Canadian economy will see $3.24-billion in efficiency gains from real-time clearing and settlement of payments over the first five years after it is introduced. In short, cheques and EFTs are too slow and inconvenient for 21st-century Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada is ready for payments evolution. Players in the ecosystem have already begun to unlock the benefits of modernized payments and digital innovation more broadly \u2014 with further reforms on the horizon including real-time settlement and open banking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a look at the latest Canadian payments (and payments-adjacent) advances, and what we can anticipate over the next few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n