Canada

Despite the real-world use cases being found around blockchain and distributed ledger technology, banks are being warned to be cautious about committing to any such projects.

Comparing the U.K. payments landscape to that of the U.S. is sometimes like comparing apples to oranges according to Ankit Kumar, manager of digital payments and mobile financial services at Gemalto.

The push for faster payments in the U.S. has suffered from the lack of a government mandate, which in other countries resulted in a common, streamlined system. Now it's time for the disparate U.S. platforms to come together.

China’s Golden Week started on Monday and with it, global cities and merchants are boldly promoting Alipay in an effort to capture Chinese tourist dollars. At the same time, merchants are building out a competitive acceptance network that could someday rival the major payment card networks.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, has named David Scola, a former Barclays exec, its new head of North America operations.

Canada’s credit unions have been losing out to the country’s banks in terms of business banking market share, and have struggled to keep up with the banks’ capacity for technological innovation. Central 1 wants to redress this imbalance in the credit unions’ ability to compete with the banks.

A deceleration in mortgage balances ends CIBC's three-year streak of outpacing Canada's other large lenders on mortgage growth. Royal Bank of Canada said this week that mortgage balances were 5.9% higher than a year earlier.

Canadian banks will likely report profit gains of as much as 10% in the third quarter as four rate increases by the Bank of Canada make consumer and commercial loans more profitable.

Air Canada and its banking partners sweetened their bid for Aeroplan, winning over Aimia’s board and an activist shareholder that was seeking a higher price.

Brim Financial is the only non-bank or credit union to have an issuer licence from Mastercard Canada. Unlike other countries, Canada doesn't require credit card issuers to have bank licenses or bank sponsors.

The U.S. companies agreed to reduce the average annual interchange rate in Canada by 10 basis points to 1.4 percent on cardThe new rate takes effect in 2020 and runs for five years. The government estimated that small and medium-sized businesses could save C$25,000 over the period.

Interac and Bambora see an opportunity to pull back Canadian domestic e-commerce transactions from credit cards to Interac debit and make it possible for Canadians to shop online in the U.S. with Interac cards.

The recent tariff escalations could cause financial pain for specific shopping corridors, particularly in price-conscious locales.

Canadian cardholders are holding back from applying for travel rewards-linked credit cards while they wait for the fallout from Air Canada’s decision to withdraw from the Aeroplan coalition loyalty scheme.

Paysafe Group will launch an in-store and online installment payment service to serve a growing appetite it sees in the U.S. and Canada.

The Canadian government is consulting with the country’s banking industry on opening up Canada’s payments infrastructure to nonbank payment service providers and fintechs, in a far-reaching move to spur innovation and competition.

Nanopay is planning to add bank, processor and accounting software partners for a B2B cross-border and domestic transfer service which it says exceeds the performance of blockchain-based systems.

Toronto-based Mint Corp. is taking advantage of the UAE government’s ambitious plans to develop a digital, cashless society.

Visa Canada is collaborating with Finn AI to develop natural language chatbot technology to address common needs experienced by credit cardholders.

Royal Bank of Canada introduced a wave of technology initiatives in a bid to attract more tech-savvy customers who embrace a digital lifestyle.