{"id":230286,"date":"2026-10-05T10:56:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/?post_type=content&p=230286"},"modified":"2026-10-05T10:57:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:57:02","slug":"why-canada-needs-a-national-payments-vision","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/en\/content\/business\/why-canada-needs-a-national-payments-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Canada Needs a National Payments Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earlier this year, I spent several days in Ottawa meeting with policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders across Canada’s payments ecosystem. Everywhere I went, I spoke with people who were working hard on the issues that will shape how money moves in this country for the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What struck me most was not a gap in activity, but the scale of the opportunity before us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada is making some of the most consequential payments policy decisions in a generation. Real-Time Rail. Consumer-driven banking. Digital assets. AI. New approaches to fraud prevention and digital trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of these developments has the potential to strengthen Canada’s competitiveness, resilience, and prosperity. But together, they present an even bigger opportunity: to step back and define what we want our payments ecosystem to become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That realization was the catalyst for our new Interac policy white paper,\u00a0Catalyzing Canada: Payments Sovereignty and the Case for Federal Leadership<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than focusing on any single reform, the paper asks a broader question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Canada’s long-term vision for payments and digital commerce?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper argues that Canada would benefit from a focused effort to articulate that vision and align the many initiatives already underway plus the new technologies on the horizon. Not because the system is broken, but because moments of significant transformation are exactly when countries should be deliberate about where they are headed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stakes are not hypothetical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, Canadians made 22.5 billion retail payment transactions worth $12.2 trillion<\/strong>. Today, more than 86% of payment activity is digital. Meanwhile, global platforms increasingly influence how Canadians pay, how transactions are routed, and who controls key elements of the digital commerce ecosystem. The opportunity before us is to build on Canada’s existing strengths, including our trusted domestic payment, money movement, identity, and fraud prevention capabilities, to ensure we remain active architects of our digital future rather than passive consumers of systems designed elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not an argument for protectionism, nor for excluding global players. Canada benefits enormously from open markets and international partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is an argument for being deliberate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other jurisdictions, including the UK, Australia, and the European Union, have undertaken national reviews to define strategic priorities for their payments systems. Canada has the opportunity to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper does not attempt to provide all the answers. Those should emerge through engagement among government, industry, consumers, and other stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we do believe one thing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we finish building the road, we should agree on where we’re going.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, I spent several days in Ottawa meeting with policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders across Canada’s payments ecosystem. Everywhere I went, I spoke with people who were working hard on the issues that will shape how money moves in this country for the next decade. 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