Earlier this week, the first demonstration of a Near Field Communication (NFC) debit transaction occurred involving Interac Flash, the Canadian debit network’s contactless-payment application. Partners from merchant McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, financial institution RBC Royal Bank and payments facilitator Moneris Solutions were involved in the demonstration, which occurred using a BlackBerry smartphone at a McDonald’s restaurant and showed how the service can pay for menu items securely and immediately using funds debited directly from a bank account.
Interac Flash uses EMV technology and the country’s existing chip-debit infrastructure.
From a press release on the Canadian News Wire:
“This free mobile debit option will benefit both our clients and our merchants. RBC clients will be able to use their mobile devices to make debit payments when and where they wish to make them, and then to immediately check their online bank balance from those same devices. We know merchants want fast, secure and low-cost transactions, and that is exactly what Interac Flash helps ensure,” said Dave McKay, RBC Royal Bank group head, personal and commercial banking.
The demonstration illustrates how banks can leverage a card network’s NFC payments platform in their mobile wallet, and how merchants can benefit from instant payments at the point of sale made possible through direct debits from users’ bank accounts. In time, consumer trust in their financial institution and payment network increasingly will play a role in which wallets prevail. First, though, more financial institutions must make POS payments an option in their mobile-banking application to fend off startups venturing into mobile payments and to make their competitive advantage work for them. Too few have yet to take the plunge, but that will change in the next 18 to 24 months across North America.
Click here to read more from the press release.