Financial Services Opportunities Report: Payment Systems

Canadians are such enthusiastic debit-card users, they seem ripe to adopt the emerging wave of mobile payment systems. Finance minister Jim Flaherty has responded to the financial sector’s intense interest in how these systems evolve by naming a task force whose mandate includes suggesting policies to make our payments system a world leader. Banks are no longer the only providers of payment services. That’s creating room for entrepreneurial firms to help other players get in on the action, says Todd Roberts, financial services partner at Deloitte Canada in Toronto: “Telcos are asking themselves, ‘How can I have someone help me create a solution that I can put in my app store so I can be in the payments business, too?’” Entrepreneurs also could sell software to retailers or SMEs so their clients can make mobile payments through a link to a payment system such as PayPal.

As well, there’s room for dead-simple systems that smaller firms can use to issue invoices and get paid electronically. Current systems are geared toward big business and government, and have a minimum transaction size that doesn’t fit the needs of most SMEs, says Roberts: “The banks have an interest in being able to provide this service in a way that makes sense for smaller businesses.”