Mobile Payments – Canadian Style

Since Rogers Wireless and CIBC launched the BlackBerry OS 7 application, and infrastructure (SureTap SIM card, Interac Flash) back in November 2012 it seems that now RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) is making rapid progress to make a similar offering.

RBC and McDonald’s bring the first NFC mobile debit transaction using BlackBerry smartphones.

This achievement in mobile innovation was accomplished in partnership with McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, the participating merchant, RBC Royal Bank, the participating financial institution, Moneris Solutions, the payment service provider facilitating the transactions, and BlackBerry, the mobile device provider.

I’ve previously done an article on mobile payments and NFC, titled Canada’s Future NFC Mainstream back on August 22nd 2011. There I mentioned the players making deals with MasterCard’s PayPass for NFC, however, as you know in the mobile phone space a LOT can happen in just 6 months, let alone 20. The potential of using a mobile Debit Card solution via secure software and hardware with a mobile network is huge.

Think, that already Canadian Banks already are issuing new Debit cards, not just with NFC imbedded, that’s old news, but now allowing them to be used – in limited fashion currently – as credit cards. This, soon enough will begin to encroach upon MasterCard & Visa’s brick and mortar traditional purchases, yet even more so the lucrative online purchasing turf.

The significance however of the RBC, McDonald’s and Moneris Solutions mobile debit payment using NFC and BlackBerry is even bigger than first thought. Consider the vast locations in Canada alone of McDonald’s stores. Now … consider the locations of such restaurants … most are in dense neighbourhoods, and many more are even close to high schools in major cities. Lastly, consider how many K12 students have smartphones of the age 14-17/18 and how many a week goto McDonald’s for lunch?!

I’ll wait, don’t worry.

Yeah that light bulb is just getting power fed to it … right … about … now!

YES! This is major dollars folks … and the kids today, even factoring inflation have more disposable funds at their disposal than the previous generation, its actually staggering! And the clincher …

Recognizing the value of this innovative product enhancement, RBC Royal Bank will be providing their customers with the speed, convenience and security of mobile Interac Flash when it comes to market, anticipated later this year. This announcement coincides with RBC’s decision to include all Interac Flash transactions as free debit transactions for personal banking accounts, a decision Interac Association/Acxsys Corporation applauds.

Free to use the cash in your personal account with RBC for these Interac Flash mobile payments. To be honest this would be stupid for them to charge for it. Wait, pay close attention to your standard account purchasing fees or overages of aloted transactions per month.

Currently, McDonald’s, Cineplex, and Canadian Tire are in partnership accepting Interac Flash payments. Now we need to have this, not just on older BBOS but also on BB10 devices as well.

I’m still awaiting the full implementation of mobile payments for:

• Grocery stores
• TTC and GoTransit fares
• Beck and other Taxi fares
• major clubs in Toronto and abroad
• major clothing retailers (Sears, Athletes World, SportCheck, The Bay, Harry Rosen, etc)

Sources that prompted this article:

Crackberry.com

Moneris Solutions

Financial Post

UPDATE: This news was actually dated March 27th 2013 according to Moneris Solutions.