Evidence of meeting #151 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bank.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
Yes, we would be happy to do that.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Okay.
What percentage of the banking market in Canada do you think you have at Interac?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
According to Payments Canada's 2023 annual report, Interac e-transfer has a 6% market share of electronic payments in Canada.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I don't get that, but anyway....
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Mr. Wilmot, you used the words “strong innovation history” and “innovated ahead of the world”. How do you compare yourself with UPI?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
I think UPI is the world's best real-time payment system.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
Interac e-transfer is 21 years old.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
You said that you were the first in the world in many systems, you were the first in the world in innovation and you are the greatest, etc. Why is it that we have to learn from a global south country where the literacy rate is still low? We are a G7 country, one of the most developed countries.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
Canadians could send money from one person to another with an email address in 2003. India, Malaysia, Australia, the U.K. and Brazil could not do that. We were the first country in the world to do that.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Let's talk about email transfers. Suppose I want to transfer $15,000 from my CIBC account to my Scotiabank account on the same street. How many days will it take?
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
There you go. That is the banking system, but you are saying that with e-transfer, you can almost do it instantaneously. The email system is outdated.
You talked about EFTs. A lot of EFTs are limited to banking hours. Is that correct?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
No, I don't believe so.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Then can direct deposit and pre-authorized debits happen at any time?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
I believe so. They're 24-7.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Okay, so you're saying that these things can be at any time.
Let's talk about direct payment. I don't know whether your infrastructure provides help for the direct deposit system. Does it?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
E-transfer has a real-time availability of funds as a result of using the high-value payment system at Payments Canada called Lynx. It means that when you send money to your son or daughter at university, they get it seconds later. When a small or medium-sized business—
President and Chief Executive Officer, Interac Corp.
—accepts money, they get it seconds later as well.
