The longtime payments executive Brett Mooney recently returned to American Express, tasked with expanding the company's business in Canada, where digital commerce is growing and attracting attention from competitors.
"The Canadian market represents a significant opportunity as the payments landscape continues to evolve," said Mooney, Amex's new CEO and country manager for Canada. "Our global transition to a cashless society is a core area for us."
"Customer preferences are changing and moving away from physical to digital in Canada, much like other countries globally," said Gareth Lodge, a senior analyst for payments at Celent, adding that the broader bank-driven Payments Canada modernization program has played a role. "The modernization program will deliver not just the foundations for more [innovation], but it will push new features as well such as real-time payments and open banking."
Amex will lean into the travel recovery to compete in Canada, as well as other markets. In Amex's most recent
"Our international businesses were among the fastest growing prior to the pandemic," Mooney said. "As countries have relaxed their cross-border travel policies and life returns to normal, we see tremendous opportunities for growth, despite ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties."
Amex's travel-heavy business model has competition in Canada. One of Mooney's prior employers, Scotiabank, has upgraded its own travel payment program to emphasize the use of installment payments. Scotiabank launched its buy now/pay later product in 2021.
"There has been a lot of renewed interest in travel, and that's created an opportunity for our installment payments," said Laura Scheck, vice president of credit cards for Scotiabank.
In an email, Scotiabank's public relations office said the bank "regularly reviews the features and benefits offered on our credit cards, including pricing. In some cases, this means fees, rates, features, or benefits change. This helps us keep our products and services competitive and valuable."
Scotiabank this week also released the results of internal research that found 42% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 plan to travel this spring, as do a third of millennials. Additionally, the card brand found that 45% of travelers plan to use points to help pay for the cost of travel.
More than travel
In addition to travel, Amex also plans to aggressively pursue small-business services.
The card network recently added 100 Canadian small businesses to its Blueprint: Backing BIPOC Business, which provides support for businesses whose founders are Black, Indigenous or people of color. The program provides grants, mentorship and access to Amex services. Amex also recently updated cash incentives for
In an effort to streamline product development, American Express recently combined its international consumer, small business and large corporate management teams under one unit.
"That will increase our speed, agility, scale and efficiency in our operations outside the U.S.," Mooney said.
Mooney previously worked for Amex between 2001 and 2014, holding roles in lending, digital strategy and customer acquisition. Most recently, he was regional president and CEO of Canada, Trinidad and Tobago for TransUnion. He also worked at Scotiabank for seven years, serving as senior vice president and head of retail cards and unsecured lending.
"My background in areas such as digital strategy, customer acquisition, payments and financial technology have given me the foundation to lead the Amex team," Mooney said.
Digital trends
The Canadian payments market is a mix of early and late adoption. The country adopted contactless mobile payments at least a decade ago, with
Among consumers, there is a clear trend toward digital payments and away from cash, which is expected to make up less than 10% of payments in Canada by 2030, according to
Total Canadian transaction volume in digital payments-comprising digital commerce and mobile point of sale-totaled $118 billion in U.S. dollars 2022, with digital commerce totaling $87 billion and mobile point of sale totaling $31 billion, according to
"With mobile payments we're at a stage in Canada where we're not solving for the actual payment itself but looking to solve problems for specific industries," said Robert Baldassare, senior advisor for fintech at the MaRS Discovery District, a Toronto-based technology development hub.
For example, TouchBistro, a member of MaRS that specializes in payments and business software for restaurants, recently
Another MaRS member, TipTap, recently began developing contactless technology to support charitable giving, and is also developing technology to support open-loop contactless transit payments.
"The use cases here are for small businesses that may not have accepted digital transactions and may not have a network in place to do so," Baldassare said.
Even with delays in some initiatives such as real-time settlement, Canada is still one of the most advanced countries when it comes to payments technology, according to Nilesh Vaidya, executive vice president and global industry head of banking at Capgemini.
"COVID created an increased focus on digitalization of the payments infrastructure, and we have seen a significant increase in contactless and digital payments," Vaidya said. "After disrupting the B2C market in Canada, BNPL is expected to gain considerable adoption in the B2B space thanks to attractive terms, convenience versus traditional financing, and widespread digitalization in consumer and business segments."
