When it comes to mobile payments, Canada has always skated ahead of the puck.
As far back as 2005, Canadian consumers were happily tapping their contactless cards to pay for goods. This was a year, don’t forget, in which a USB stick was considered futuristic. Early adoption of contactless payments has engrained a ‘tap and go’ culture, which, combined with high smartphone penetration and an expansive NFC contactless infrastructure, means that many Canadians see mobile payments as a natural progression.
The result? In 2015, only 25% of transactions used cash and the number of contactless transactions increased by over 100%. In addition, an increasing number of Canadians are acknowledging that mobile payments make transactions easier, faster and more efficient.
Securing Canadian Mobile Debit Payments
When it comes to mobile payments, security is paramount. The good news is that the development of the Interac Token Service Provider (TSP) means that mobile debit payments in Canada will get even more secure.
The Interac TSP, which was developed in partnership with Bell ID, enables Interac to support the Canadian market with secure tokenization services. Tokenization reduces the value of stored payment credentials by replacing them with a randomly generated number which resembles the customer’s primary account number (PAN). This means tokenized data is essentially worthless if obtained by fraudsters.
Also, the Interac TSP can support a wide array of mobile payment deployment options. This flexibility enables Interac to adapt to the market’s constantly changing dynamics, and offer the latest payment security services to its customers, long-term.
Taking Control of Tokenization
The role of the token service provider (TSP) has come to the fore to manage the tokenization process, including hosting the secure token vault, and ensure customers’ and banks’ sensitive data is kept secure. When deploying tokenization technology to integrate with the various mobile payments platforms, banks have a number of options. They can choose to become their own TSP and take control of their own tokenization activity. This process can also be hosted with a trusted third party, while still maintaining control of the implementation and sensitive data. Alternatively, tokenization can be completely outsourced to the payments schemes.
To find out more, watch our video on payment tokenization or visit our resources section to read our eBooks and case studies.