Articles

Open banking and payments modernization: running away from opportunity

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When it comes to open banking, Canada is putting off third-party payment initiation at its own peril. The federal government and its advisory committee have noted time and time again that the scope of their open banking review is limited to data mobility, making third-party payment initiation nothing more than a future possibility.

Want to promote responsible innovation? Start by promoting better questions

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Remember when Paul Krugman wrote about the effect the Internet would have on the economy? “By 2005, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s,” he said in Time magazine in the late 1990s.

What pirates and privateers can tell us about payments

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Transaction costs are to economics what friction is to physics. They’re a drag on people buying and selling, like friction is on things moving through space and time. High transaction costs are usually bad because they lock up economic value that would have otherwise been generated for buyers and sellers.

Public policy debate is a chorus that never ends

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The late Christopher Booker wrote The Seven Basic Plots, where he argued that there are really only seven different types of story, each reducible to a single word or phrase. One could write a similar book about public policy debate.

Canadians lose when policy keeps paytechs small

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All paytechs operating in Canada need the chance to get big. It’s a self-interested thing for me to say. It may even sound banal. But it needs to be said because bigness is underrated, and outdated policy stands in the way of many paytechs getting bigger.

Part 2: PayTechs of Canada interview of Competition Commissioner, Matthew Boswell

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In late 2020, I had the opportunity to engage Canada’s Commissioner of Competition, Matthew Boswell in discussion to gain his perspective on the evolution of Canada’s payments system, and the importance of promoting a competitive marketplace for the benefit of Canadians and the Canadian economy. This is the second part of a two-part interview, originally released, January 20, 2021.

Part 1: PayTechs of Canada interview of Competition Commissioner, Matthew Boswell

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In late 2020, I had the opportunity to engage Canada’s Commissioner of Competition, Matthew Boswell in discussion to gain his perspective about the evolution of Canada’s payments system, and the importance of promoting a competitive marketplace for the benefit of Canadians and the Canadian economy. The second part of this two-part interview will be released next week, January 28, 2021.

2021: Out with the old, in with the new, or more of the same?

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Clearly 2020 has been a tumultuous year for consumers, businesses, and the overall economy. Unfortunately, there have been many business casualties linked directly to the Covid-19 epidemic which translate into further issues and challenges for the average Canadian.

RPOF Part 2: The other side of the coin

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In part 1 of this series discussing Canada’s proposed Retail Payments Oversight Framework (RPOF), PayTechs of Canada Executive Director, Doug Kreviazuk, outlined the need for this legislation and its potential to guide Canada into an era of payments modernization. In part 2, PayTechs of Canada Board Chair, Laurence Cooke, looks to provide insight into the concerns surrounding and potential shortcomings of the proposed RPOF legislation.

RPOF Part I: The cornerstone of evolution for the payments system

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“In mid-2017, the Department of Finance released a new Retail Payments Oversight Framework (RPOF) in response to mounting pressure to modernize retail payments regulations and the rapid emergence of new, unregulated participants in the broader payments ecosystem. The RPOF was designed to better safeguard the payments system from new risks and enhance the system’s transparency. Under the direct oversight authority of the Bank of Canada, most Payments Service Providers (“PSPs”), historically viewed as either unregulated or under-regulated, would be included under this new regulatory umbrella.”