Joint initiative will look to offer Canadians the ability to transfer money to banks across the world
TORONTO, November 29, 2017 – Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation, one of Canada’s leading payments brands, and nanopay Corporation, a real-time payment platform that provides instant settlement across a variety of currencies, are working together to build a new way of digitally transferring money securely and in real-time from Canadian bank accounts to international high-volume remittance corridors, starting with India.
“Bringing another real-time digital payment option to Canadians to send money to relatives, friends or businesses around the world is very exciting,” says Debbie Gamble, Vice President of Product and Platform Development at Interac. “Taking a made-in-Canada, ubiquitous and scalable platform like Interac e-Transfer and integrating it with a savvy fintech force like nanopay will open up more access points, choice, convenience and control for Canadians to move their money.”
“Our philosophy is that fintech companies should be partners in innovation with established payment leaders to bring new products to market more quickly,” said Laurence Cooke, founder and CEO, nanopay. “In collaborating with Interac, Canada’s first “fintech”, we are building upon the popularity of Interac e-Transfer to enable all Canadians to instantly send money internationally as easily as sending a message, on a platform used 160 million times last year.”
The extension of real-time cross-border digital payment capabilities for the Interac e-Transfer platform is an important part of the broader effort to continue modernizing Canada’s payment systems. “The Interac e-Transfer platform is the backbone of digital payments in Canada,” says Gamble. “The potential for innovation is limitless when technology partners can build on it and leverage the service that is already an integral part of Canadians’ daily lives.”
Whether for personal or business reasons, Canadians frequently send money to India, and there is a growing appetite for faster, secure and convenient cross-border digital payment options. The jointly developed service will leverage the familiar Interac e-Transfer user experience to send money from a Canadian account to an eligible Indian bank account. Through the service, senders will identify a personal email address or mobile phone number through a participating financial institution’s online or mobile banking application with transparent, instant notifications sent to the recipient. Compared to Interac e-Transfer, additional information about the beneficiary of the funds will be required to ensure regulatory and compliance requirements are met.
Interac and nanopay are working together to introduce the capability to financial institutions across Canada. The integration of nanopay’s technology with Interac’s payments system will enable financial institutions to offer Canadians a simple, familiar and secure cross-border experience. “We are confident that financial institutions will see the immediate benefits to their business and their customers when it comes to international real-time digital payments,” says Cooke. Together, nanopay and Interac will look to expand the international service to additional markets.
Canadians sent more than 158 million transfers via Interac e-Transfer in 2016, growing by 50% YoY for over $63 billion in value transferred. On peak days, over one million transactions are sent over the Interac e-Transfer platform. Comparatively, in 2016, Canadians sent over $23 billion for remittances, as per the World Bank.*
About Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation
Together, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation operate an economical, world-class debit payments system with broad-based acceptance, 24/7/365 reliability, security, and efficiency. The organization is Canada’s leading payments brand and is chosen an average of 16 million times daily to pay and exchange money. For more than 30 years, it has facilitated secure financial transactions through the development of innovative and convenient digital debit and money transfer solutions. A leader in the prevention and detection of fraud, the organization has one of the lowest rates of fraud globally. Visit interac.ca or follow us @INTERAC.
About nanopay
Founded in 2013, nanopay is a Fintech company based in Toronto that provides a real-time payments platform to enable banks, payment service providers and businesses to modernize their payment systems and deliver instantaneous and secure global payments. nanopay’s platform was built for payment innovation with solutions for cross-border & B2B payments, digital cash and settlement in capital markets.
At the heart of the nanopay platform is its unique patented technology, acquired from the Royal Canadian Mint in 2015, which securely stores and moves value between users, instantly and without intermediaries. nanopay’s open and flexible APIs ensure easy integration and reduces the time, cost and complexity of implementations. nanopay’s platform has been live in Canada since June 2016.
