That's important too.
Evidence of meeting #19 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was technology.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #19 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was technology.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Head, Mobile Innovation, Visa Canada Corporation
Yes. We can't wrap those up, though.
4:40 p.m.
Head, Mobile Innovation, Visa Canada Corporation
But no, we really are at the tip of the spear in Canada. There are replicates of me in different markets where Visa sees a lot of opportunity with NFC payments: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.
We really are far, far ahead from an NFC perspective. Our contactless issuance.... All of our banks issue contactless cards, so from a behaviour perspective, there's no difference between waving a plastic card or waving a mobile device. It's already embedded in the psyche. We have a lot of merchants accepting.
On the earlier point about 62% of Canadians owning a smartphone, that's world class.
4:40 p.m.
Chief Legal Officer, EnStream
When you add in past payments and you are then looking at government identification—as I mentioned earlier, driver's licences, health cards, hotel room keys—EnStream is very excited about this, because now we are getting calls from outside Canada. The irony is that in a few cases we've had calls from Americans. We have to explain to them that we'd love to do this technology for them but it won't do them much good, because they don't have retailers who have contactless capability. But it's exciting. It's a good start.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you very much, Mr. Adler.
We'll go to you now, Mr. Van Kesteren, for your round.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Thanks to all of you.
This is fascinating stuff, especially for an old guy like me who's still getting used to his iPad.
4:40 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
One of the questions that I have you may already have answered. Just to show you how far in the past I am, are we at the point where I can wave my smartphone in front of my iPad and make a payment?
4:40 p.m.
Head, Mobile Innovation, Visa Canada Corporation
It's certainly technically possible for that to happen. There are some folks from different companies working on that.
Both would need to have an NFC antenna. In the instance of that iPad, Apple has made a decision not to include NFC antennas in any of their products, whether they be phones or tablets, so for that specific example, probably not.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
That leads me to a question about the Americans. Is that part of the culture? Because you're right: I go to the States, I buy some gas, and they won't take my smart card—I have to go inside. Is that a cultural thing with the Americans?
4:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Emerging Payments, MasterCard Canada
The Americans are now in the process of implementing chip. Last week, I was at a conference in Salt Lake City. It was called the Smart Card Alliance. We had a Canadian panel there. We were showing them the way to chip and contactless.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
So there is a lot of opportunity for exporting, Martha, in your firm and other firms, maybe some—
4:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Emerging Payments, MasterCard Canada
Some of the expertise, yes.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
4:45 p.m.
General Manager, PayPal Canada
I have one other example. You mentioned waving a phone over a tablet.
4:45 p.m.
General Manager, PayPal Canada
One of the things that we're testing—and that Apple is as well—is beacon technology, Bluetooth technology that essentially allows you to walk into a store, and, if you've opted into this, you've checked in. You don't even have to take your phone out of your pocket. Through facial technology, facial recognition, you pay. Your face is transmitted to the POS system, and you pay and walk out. We're on the bleeding edge of change that we can't even imagine—
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
It's incredible. Congratulations.
Ms. Burke, I couldn't agree with you more. Coming from a business background myself, the best thing that ever happened was the cards, and the amounts of money.... I've said many times, and in this committee as well, that the benefits far, far outweigh the costs.
But I'm hoping that with enough competition, and I understand even with a new procedure.... If I have this right, you're saying that with your technology the information has to pass beyond a barrier, whereas for the phone, Martha, it's all in the phone. The firewalls are in the phone. Do I have that right?
4:45 p.m.
Chief Legal Officer, EnStream
RBC is the only bank so far that has deployed a cloud solution. CIBC is out with a solution that is not cloud based. In our view, they're equally secure. The security resides in a slightly different place, but they're both incredibly secure.
4:45 p.m.
Chief Legal Officer, EnStream
In the traditional bank deployments that we're seeing, either out there already with CIBC or about to come on stream, the information resides, but all incredibly encrypted, on the SIM card. But they're different.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative