Canada

Two major Canadian banks, Bank of Montreal and Simplii Financial, have become victims of hacks that affected some 50,000 and 40,000 customers respectively. Neither bank decided to pay the ransom by the hackers' May 28 deadline.

While unprecedented debt levels pose risks, lenders say there won’t be any major upset to the economy for a number of reasons, including the view Bank of Canada won’t press ahead with higher rates if signs of stress emerge.

Visa Canada plans to offer real-time B2B and B2C disbursements via its Visa Direct card-to-card transfer service, competing head-on with Canada's Interac network and a product Mastercard launched in the country earlier this year.

This month, Vancouver became the first Canadian city to commercially roll out open transit payments. But the city of Laval actually got a head start on Vancouver with a pilot project that is getting a positive reaction from riders.

Despite Canada's high penetration of contactless POS terminals and consumer affinity for the technology, the country has lagged behind nations such as the U.K. and Singapore in contactless payments. That is set to change as Canada's transit schemes launch contactless open-payment systems.

Instead of expanding Alipay’s geographic reach across the U.S. and Canada, Alipay is doubling down on merchant acceptance in urban areas and tourist zones to drive more spending volume.

The expansion of Visa Direct is designed to speed disbursements for health care patients who can receive an instant payment versus waiting several days to a week for payout.

Before Paytm became one of India's most popular mobile wallets, it was a little-known bill payment app that launched in 2011 and spread by word of mouth. Now Paytm is revisiting that history in Canada, though its challenges in North America are very different than what it faced in India.

The country's six largest lenders are approaching their strongest capital position since 2013, leaving them with enough resources to pursue acquisitions, buy back shares or build from within. That has the chiefs of Canada's big banks weighing options.

Rob Paterson didn't seem to fit the script of a go-to banker for the pot industry — he barely drank and hadn't smoked a joint since his university days. But three years since taking on his first marijuana customer, that's just what the CEO of Alterna Savings & Credit Union has become.

Until the technologies provide significant savings, cryptotokens threaten financial stability, and the risks of open access to central bank balance sheets are worked out, retail CBDCs are a long way off, writes Collin Canright, a fintech consultant.

Canada's financial consumer watchdog will strengthen its supervisory and enforcement teams, modernize its supervision approach to monitor banks more proactively, and enhance consumer information after reviewing bank sales practices.

A motivating speech from a female executive at the Ogilvy ad agency 15 years ago helped steer Denise Pickett to new heights at American Express. As did having a family willing to move to the U.S. from Canada.

This year, as PaymentsSource honors The Most Influential Women in Payments, a new pattern has emerged. This year's list recognizes the contributions of entrepreneurs who took their ideas directly to market, showcasing new ways of handling business in an industry that is forced to quickly adapt to rapid changes in technology and global culture.

It still surprises Debbie Gamble that a chance summer job she took at a bank turned into nearly a 30-year career leading to her current post influencing Canada’s payments technology at Interac, the national debit system.

Foreign inflows are distorting Canada's already constrained housing market and aren't the kind of investment the country needs, the chief executive officer of Royal Bank of Canada said.

Ant Financial’s Alipay is working with the Canadian payments processor Motion Pay Technology to push Ant's geographic reach in North America.

Money launderers are opportunists and the real estate sector is a weak link when it comes to regulation, writes Jay Ryan, an executive vice president at Accuity.

The nation's finance minister is set to overturn Bank Act restrictions that would have prevented credit unions from using words like "bank" or "banking" in their communications.

The Ontario-based CU will use Fiserv’s DNA platform to automate workflows.