Interac Corp.

And, you know, Canada is an interesting market because not only do you have, you know, the traditional kind of card rails there, but you also have...

It's not that it's not a traditional, but you have like Interac and you have you have these other kind of local payment schemes, just like in Europe, right, where pick the country.

You could point to three or four different local payment schemes that are there that unless you operate and live there, like you're like, I've never heard of that.

You know,

So now the other priority that you guys have had over the last, uh, basically over the summer is, is this age verification, um, plan and goal.

Uh, back when we spoke in January, I think it was, the, the plan at the time was to, you know, there was the Toonie plan, which was you'd, uh, users would send, uh, Gander a Toonie over Interac, and that would essentially verify your age because you Need to be of age in order to do that sort of thing.

That didn't pl- uh, that didn't pan out, if I'm not mistaken, and you're instead using a Canada Post system.

Can-- A-and potentially, I think there's something that you can still do with Interac.

Can you explain, um, what the challenges there were? And, uh, is it still a priority? I gather it is because of, um, you know, coming potential legislation efforts, and also you guys have talked a lot about Human Check in your, uh, investor brief.

So can you tell us a little bit about how that's all gone?

Then there's everybody else, and really the option was, as you mentioned, uh, try and find a solution that wasn't, uh, invasive.

And, and the, uh, sending a Toonie thing was an idea, and, and, and a pretty elegant one, honestly.

Yeah.

In terms of the, I think where people really, miss is they think they can go live with that easy button and they don't realize how much competition that they have in that country for payments, who knows exactly how to manage Interac in Canada, who know exactly how to manage 3DS and those mandates in Europe, and truly competing against direct payment providers in those countries.

And that cost of hiring an expert in that space, hiring the resources to successfully sell businesses who know about what the needs in that market, they don't factor in.

They just take the volume of the country, multiply it by their payments adoption that they think they can get, what rough unit economics they're getting today.

So you may need a different support model, but also a different technical model to get them through and complete that application as fast as possible.

The other is the actual payment acceptance experience, customizing that for the correct region.

I've already mentioned Interact on this call, but that is a very, very important payment method in Canada.

Bringing back 3DS, ensuring that 3ds is used in the correct on the correct transactions has to be customized um for that region especially when you're in the eu and so when you're looking at what pieces to to standardize i think reporting and then to differentiate to really make that um that payments offering in that specific region feel best in class is that onboarding experience and the payment processing experience is where you can customize and tweak that flow, those flows.

So we're making sure that we're putting the best of what we have to offer in the first solution we bring to market.

But really what you're going to see is you're going to see advancements on the standards and protocols, whether it's UCP or AP2 or any of these protocols that they're going to build more trust and security in.

And then you're going to see the same thing when it comes to card networks like Visa, MasterCard or Interact or the issuers where they're going to say, hey, this is the best way to tell us that this is secure.

This is the best way to tell us that it's, you know, authenticated agent.

And that's where Moneris will lead in the Canadian space to make sure that we're doing that first for Canadians.

Canada is different and it's not that like Canada is different and it's different than the rest of the world.

It's just every regional market is trying to be different.

Canadians benefit from the fact that we have Interact in Canada where everybody's on the same debit network and it makes it so that you can use your debit card really at any merchant in the country and it just works.

First up, some frustration about those no right turn on red signs popping up around town, particularly at Bowen Road and Boxwood Road.

Someone also wants to give a shout out to folks using Interac or eTransfers instead of Visa or MasterCard when making purchases in Canada.

It supports Canadian businesses rather than United States corporations.

There's some concern about pharmacy assistants offering medical advice that is best left to the professionals.

Welcome to a special edition of 6th Inning Stretch.

I'm Lindsey Dunn coming to you from the Sports Interaction studio, and for the first time in this show's history, not only do we have the first time we've ever had a guest on for a second time, but the first time we've ever had a guest co-host.

Blue Jays fans, I know you recognize this face that you're seeing right now, and you'll recognize the voice.

It is none other than Angels catcher, MLB's Magic Man, Tyler Heineman.

And I wouldn't want to cede sovereignty in that space.

I mean, I was able to use, you know, Interac, essentially, to make purchases all across Canada, use ATMs from any bank well before that happened in the United States.

I don't want to give up ground there to somebody else.

No, I don't want to give up that ground, actually, either, actually.

But what was the world like before Venmo? Right? I mean...

It's really like the analogies are amazing because I think they help to reframe the question from, you know, should I invest in this to what does the world look like after this is fully embedded in the system? Once we had things like Venmo in Canada, Interac, you know, being able to send money between parties and companies and whoever you want to pay for something instantly, we can't go back.

No one's going to say, oh, we're going to take it away.

We're going to close Venmo.

If you are not watching, make sure to watch.

We're coming to you from the Sports Interaction Studio.

How we doing, Whit?

Good.

[laughs]

Um, it was every credit card, all of my Interac cards, like...

And I'm standing in a grocery store line.

It's at No Frills, which is like the lowest of the low-