Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

Libra: the AOL of crypto?

By Daniil Saiko The earliest iteration of email was a fringe application, only used by tech-savvy engineers and hobbyists. That changed with the introduction of AOL, which took the Internet and email from fringe to mainstream. Despite the mass amount of media coverage, cryptocurrencies are in the same position as …

READ MORE →
Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

How Gen Z guides payments

By Daniel Kornitzer ECommerce and mobile commerce (mCommerce) continue to grow in Canada. eMarketer forecasts that 31.5 per cent of the $64.6 billion in eCommerce sales in 2019 will be carried out using a smartphone or tablet. The connected growth of eCommerce and mCommerce is being driven in part by …

READ MORE →
Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

Gaming: from play to pay

By Paul Parisi Today’s gaming industry has evolved dramatically over the past few years. According to the 2019 Newzoo Global Games Market Report, the global gaming economy is a major industry with over $150 billion in gaming revenue and an 11 per cent annual revenue growth. With that growth comes …

READ MORE →
Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

Future-shaping trends

Look for personalization, redemption options and “points as currency” By Len Covello The loyalty industry in Canada has left brands and consumers wanting more. The issue is that many of today’s loyalty programs run on unsophisticated technologies with little segmentation capabilities and zero personalization features. When it comes to loyalty …

READ MORE →
Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

Combatting fraud with centralized data

By Stacy Gorkoff The Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” When it comes to guaranteeing that every payment transaction completes as expected, this statement could not be more accurate. For retail banks, independent ATM deployers (IADs) and payment processors, transactions are …

READ MORE →
Industry News

Building the Digital ID foundation

By Neil Butters The payments industry has already made significant progress helping Canadians adopt and embrace new technologies, such as contactless and digital payments. Now it’s time to apply what we’ve learned to the development of a truly digital ID that will help people unlock the full potential of the …

READ MORE →
Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

Bright forecast for payments modernization

By Tracey Black Payments modernization around the world continues to progress, addressing consumer and business needs for greater speed, flexibility and security. In its sixth annual Flavors of Fast report, FIS identified 54 countries with active real-time payment programs, up from 40 in 2018. Here in Canada we are making …

READ MORE →
Industry News

Bridging the cash and digital worlds

By Molly Shea The cash versus cashless debate has been well-argued for years now, with many people putting their eggs in one basket or the other: either making the case for a completely cashless society or arguing why physical currency is still valuable. While you probably carry less cash than …

READ MORE →
Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

Adopting emerging payments solutions

By David Grindal Our traditional world of stable payment acceptance mechanisms is long gone. Payments used to just mean either cash and cards for a merchant or automated clearing house (ACH) and wire transfers and larger-amount cheques for a business, government or institution. The only person-to-person (P2P) payments that were …

READ MORE →
Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

Five reasons to automate invoices

By Anthony Loiacono All businesses are not created equal and neither are their accounting needs. There is no one-size-fits-all way to structure an accounts department. However, there may be an easier way to handle certain accounting tasks, such as invoicing, which can be automated to reduce the amounts of staff-hours …

READ MORE →