SECAUCUS, N.J. — During the four month period from December through March 2008, Canadian shoppers spent record amounts and made significantly more cross-border purchases than last year.
U.S. retailers experienced even more value from accepting Canadian PIN debit cards during the holiday, spring break and snowbird season through the Cross-Border Debit service. The service is offered through an alliance between NYCE Payments Network and Acxsys Corp. NYCE Payments Network LLC is a U.S. debit card payments network and a Metavante company. Metavante is a provider of banking and payments technology. Acxsys Corp. is the architect of the national INTERAC debit service in Canada.
During the period from December 2007 through March 2008, Canadian consumers spent an average of more than $68 per Cross-Border Debit transaction — a figure that is 45 percent more than the average U.S. debit purchase during the same months. Since the service launch, the Canadian average has outpaced the U.S. average by 33 percent.
"The higher per-transaction average, combined with the lower cost to process PIN debit transactions versus credit, saves our retailers money while giving Canadian consumers instant access to funds that reside in their Canadian bank accounts," said Steve Rathgaber, president and chief operating officer at NYCE. "As they do at home, Canadians are choosing PIN debit at all types of retailers that accept NYCE, giving NYCE a unique value proposition to offer our participants."
While the three-year-old program continues to enjoy steady growth overall, transaction numbers increased dramatically for the November and December shopping season last year in the states of New York and Washington. The combined transaction number for these states jumped 94 percent. Growth remained strong in the months following this period, with those same states logging 92 and 102 percent increases respectively in March 2008 transactions alone over the past year.
"Canadians are among the highest users of debit compared to other countries around the world, so it's not surprising that Canadians are increasingly choosing debit in the United States as their preferred payment method," said Tina Romano, public relations manager for Acxsys Corp.
NYCE is the first and only U.S. payments network to enable widespread PIN debit access at the point of sale for purchases initiated with debit cards issued by participating Canadian financial institutions.
