{"id":230183,"date":"2026-09-25T13:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T17:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/?post_type=content&p=230183"},"modified":"2026-09-25T13:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T17:35:19","slug":"interac-in-conversation-with-kijiji-building-trust-in-peer-to-peer-commerce","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/en\/content\/business\/interac-in-conversation-with-kijiji-building-trust-in-peer-to-peer-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"Interac in conversation with Kijiji: Building trust in peer-to-peer commerce\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Every month, Kijiji, a leading peer-to-peer Canadian online marketplace<\/a>, reports that around five million Canadians buy and sell on their platform, with more than four million live listings across categories from automotive and real estate to furniture, phones and everyday household items. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of those transactions happen between strangers. While ratings and reviews help build some trust, they can’t verify whether the account on the other end of the transaction belongs to a real person. Interac Verified<\/a> is designed to help address that gap, letting Canadians who bank at participating financial institutions verify their identity quickly and securely through the banking login they already use \u2014 built on the same trusted network their financial institution relies on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2026<\/a>, Kijiji introduced the Kijiji verification badge, with verification powered Interac verification service<\/a> (part of the Interac Verified suite of services) to add an additional layer of trust and confidence to peer-to-peer interactions. Since then,\u202fKijiji\u202fhas further expanded its use of Interac Verified: It now allows users to verify themselves with Interac document verification service<\/a> by uploading their accepted ID and taking a live selfie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interac spoke with Giles Sutherland, Head of Business Development at Interac, and Amanda Zeffiro, General Manager of Kijiji Canada, to talk about the collaboration and what it signals for the future of digital trust in Canada. Below is an edited version of their conversation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How digital verification builds consumer trust  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let’s talk about the origins of this collaboration. What was Kijiji looking for?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda:<\/strong> Ultimately, it’s trust. One our key priorities under trust was around identity. We believe [an enhanced identity verification feature] could make Kijiji one of the most trusted marketplaces in Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Platforms that are built on social networks build trust through familiarity \u2014 you can see mutual friends and that makes you feel comfortable. We believe that verifying with your participating financial institution by logging in with your online banking credentials is much stronger than \u201cwe have a friend in common.\u201d And especially with our higher-value categories \u2014 autos, real estate, collectibles, high-value electronics \u2014 that only works if people feel we\u2019ve added a layer of confidence before they make a decision of that magnitude. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giles:<\/strong> The anonymity [of peer-to-peer online marketplaces] is a huge part of the challenge and risk function that people are trying to manage.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if I like the bike that you’re selling, we’ll exchange, and most of the time that works. But without knowing who\u2019s on the other side of the transaction, there\u2019s always a risk. If you’re a fraudster and I send money and lo and behold, the bike never shows up, I’m now a victim of a scam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda: <\/strong>We could have put up more walls to prevent the scammers or non-trustworthy users to interact on Kijiji, but then that just hurts the honest users. So, this flips that dynamic: It empowers the honest users by enabling them to verify themselves with Interac Verified instead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the solution Interac was able to offer Kijiji for the trust issue, and how does it work? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda:<\/strong> Integrating the Interac verification service into the Kijiji platform allows users to verify their identity through the participating Canadian financial institution they already use. Users\u2019 bank login details stay private. Neither Kijiji nor Interac has access to that information. Basically, we look to the Interac verification service to enable users to verify information using credentials associated with their participating financial institution. And once the user is verified \u2014 which is free and it takes about two minutes \u2014 that will show up as a badge on their profile, and that’s what other users can see.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How does verifying sellers help buyers? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda:<\/strong> It enables users to feel more confident. They know that they’re dealing with a real individual, which reduces friction, mistrust or other issues that they’re facing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giles:<\/strong> As a buyer or seller, you might say, \u201cOh, I feel better that they’ve given this a check mark,\u201d especially if you know that it means the person has verified their identity with Kijiji through their participating financial institution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this collaboration accomplish for Kijiji, Amanda? How will it be a differentiator for you?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda:<\/strong> For us, trust is our product in many ways. You can have the best functionality in the world, but if the buyers and sellers don’t feel safe transacting, the platform doesn’t really fulfil its purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The uptake has been a lot higher than we had initially modelled, even before actively promoting it. We take that as validation that this is something that users want and are looking for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Verification, trust and the growing digital economy  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately the issue you’re solving for is trust. Why is it such a critical issue for consumers?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giles:<\/strong> Millions of Canadians are engaging in peer-to-peer transactions ever year, really requiring them to put their trust in strangers online. Frauds and scams are becoming an increasingly problematic challenge globally, and Canada has been hit harder than most.1<\/sup>,2<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With AI, with digitization, all these things, that distrust is just increasing \u2014 where deepfakes are making it really hard for consumers to trust anything, frankly. If Interac and the organizations that work with us can inject verified\u202fidentity into those moments where trust is needed most, it can make a significant difference for Canadians \u2014\u202fand in the big picture, build up consumer trust in online experiences so they engage with the digital economy rather than shrink away from it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What other industries do you think could use Interac Verified to create better experiences for their customers?  <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giles<\/strong>: Industries that process very high-stakes transactions. I think about when someone is buying a house, buying a car<\/a>, renting, all of those require someone to say \u201cI trust this person.\u201d There\u2019s also the other end of the spectrum, when you\u2019re verifying that you\u2019re a human for some kind of online function, or that you\u2019re of age. And obviously age verification is a hot topic within the Canadian political landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to renew my mortgage recently, and so I had to go into a bank branch with a number of documents and watched someone photocopy my driver’s licence in the back room and put it in a file. There should be a better way.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The vision and aspiration for Interac Verified would be to become as well-known and familiar at a household level as, say, Interac e-Transfer. People would say, \u201cOh yeah, I just verified myself.\u201d They\u2019ll barely remember sometime years prior when you had to be doing that manually with a bunch of papers and PDFing documents and photocopying a licence and taking hours out of your day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What could be the big-picture impact of widespread adoption of digital verification in the future? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giles:<\/strong> [If verification keeps growing], I think it will prove to be a true uplift to the whole economy involving millions, if not billions, of interactions for Canadians in a given year \u2014 people going to pay their taxes, do their banking, rent an apartment, buy a car, buy something on Kijiji, whatever it is.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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