Cross-border debit fuels growth in Canada
February 28, 2007
SECAUCUS, N.J. - NYCE Payments Network LLC, a division of Metavante Corp., said it logged 3 million transactions during the 2006 holiday season, which ended Dec. 31.
"Fourteen months after NYCE and Acxsys Corporation launched Canadian Cross-Border Debit, we reached a million transactions," said Steve Rathgaber, NYCE president and chief operating officer. "For U.S. retailers, this translates into 3 million Canadian Cross-Border transactions delivering incremental gain and generally lower transaction costs."
In 2004, NYCE launched Cross-Border Debit as an alliance with Acxsys Corp., architect of Interac's national PIN debit services in Canada, and major Canadian financial institutions to open U.S. retailers to Canadian shoppers. Participating Canadian financial instutitions include: ATB Financial, Desjardins Group, National Bank of Canada, RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank and TD Canada Trust. According to a news release, since the launch of Canadian Cross-Border Debit, Canadian cardholders' average transaction amount on the NYCE Network has outpaced the U.S. figure by 34 percent. The U.S. figure averages U.S. $47 per purchase, the Canadian averages U.S. $63 per purchase. Though California, New York, Florida, Washington State, Michigan and Maine have seen the greatest transaction volumes from the service, all 50 states and U.S. territories are hosting Canadian Cross-Border Debit transactions.