Canadian Interac e-Transfers Expand Internationally

Last week, Interac announced that MoneyGram will now be using its e-Transfer service, bringing a new way for Canadians to receive payments sent through MoneyGram’s payment service and today, it has revealed a new joint initiative in partnership with real-time payment platform Nanopay Corporation, that will offer Canadians a new way of digitally transferring money to banks across the world.

Debbie Gamble, Vice President of Product and Platform Development at Interac., said that Canadians will be able to transfer money securely and in real-time from their Canadian bank accounts to international high-volume remittance corridors, starting with India. “Bringing another real-time digital payment option to Canadians to send money to relatives, friends or businesses around the world is very exciting”, she said. 

Gamble continued that the extension of real-time cross-border digital payment capabilities for the Interac e-Transfer platform is an important part of the broader effort to continue modernizing Canada’s payment systems.

The jointly developed service will leverage the familiar Interac e-Transfer user experience to send money from a Canadian account to an eligible Indian bank account. Through the service, senders will identify a personal email address or mobile phone number through a participating financial institution’s online or mobile banking application with transparent, instant notifications sent to the recipient. 

Compared to Interac e-Transfer, additional information about the beneficiary of the funds will be required to ensure regulatory and compliance requirements are met.

Last year, Canadians sent more than 158 million transfers via Interac e-Transfer, growing by 50% year-over-year for over $63 billion in value transferred.