Cashless Payments Dominate

Earlier this month Payments Canada released its annual report on payment methods and trends. The report looked at more than 22 billion payment transactions made in 2019 – providing insight on both year-over-year and 5-year trends in Canada. Here are some highlights:

• Electronic payments now account for 77% of total payments volume (an increase from last year)
• Contactless payments grew dramatically, increasing 15% in volume and 20% in value
• Cash payments declined 9%, and is expected to decline steadily
• Canadians continue to adopt new payment options; about 18% of Canadians made in-app purchases, and about 15% of Canadians made purchases using gaming consoles or Internet of Things (IoT) devices
• Corporate cheque volumes declined, but the average value of a corporate cheque increased by about 5%
• Electronic funds transfers (EFTs) represented the largest portion of the total transaction value (52%) of total payments value in 2019

The Pandemic Factor

Payments Canada also updated its survey results on Canadian spending and purchase habits during the pandemic. Here are some notable results:

• 44% of Canadians say COVID-19 has changed their payments preferences to digital and contactless long-term
• 47% report tapping their debit and credit cards more often than pre-COVID, compared to 53% at week five of the pandemic
• 42% are uncomfortable handling cash in general

Don’t Be Left Behind

VoPay’s Payment as a Service (PaaS) solution is designed to allow businesses to utilize local, regional and global payments options through a single open API to meet all their payment needs and meet consumer’s paperless expections. The complexity of moving funds between different providers is all handled by VoPay ensuring a seamless experience for all users.

Available payments services include:

Intelligent EFT / ACH (iQ11): Accept instant bank account verification payments, improve payment speed and reduce NSFs. Learn more.

EFT / ACH: Seamlessly facilitate bank payment processing by connecting to North America’s banking system. Learn more.

Interac e-Transfer for Business: Send thousands of near real-time payments with higher funding limits with just an email. Learn more.

VoPay Instant (Visa Direct): Send money directly to almost any Visa card holder in real-time. Learn more.

In the summer we released our first quarterly ‘Open Banking Movers and Shakers‘. We’re pleased to share an updated list with several new additions. Welcome Wealthsimple, Borrowell, Financial Data Exchange, Payments Canada and Marble! All the organizations below have helped make 2020 the biggest year yet for open banking (AKA open finance or consumer-directed finance). Current projected open banking growth through 2026 is over 24%, reaching $43.1 billion in value.

We’ve listed everyone below that’s included in the graphic above for your browsing convenience. Want to be included in next year’s ‘Open Banking Movers & Shakers’ list? Send us an email at: press@vopay.com

Data Networks

•  Envestnet Yodlee

• Flinks 

• Fiserv

• Plaid

• MX

• Inverite

• Direct ID

• M Science

KYC/AML

• Equifax

• Experian

• Transunion

• Trulioo

Lending

• Quicken Loans

• Kabbage

• Marble

Spending / Savings

• Mogo

• EQ Bank

• Petal

• Borrowell (NEW ADDITION)

Payment-As-A-Service

• Interac

• VoPay

• Trustly

Investing

• Betterment

• Morningstar

• Wealthica 

• Quest Trade

• Wealthsimple (NEW ADDITION)

Accounting

• Xero

• Intuit

Policy / Data Standards

• FDATA North America

• Fintech Growth Syndicate

• Canadian Lenders Association

• Financial Data Exchange (NEW ADDITION)

• Payments Canada (NEW ADDITION)