ETA Annual Policy Day — Toronto: Five Takeaways

On Thursday, November 5th, ETA hosted ETA Annual Policy Day — Toronto. This event brought together ETA members with government regulators and executives from all aspects of the payments industry to discuss regulatory changes and the outlook for payments in Canada. Topics discussed include the role of FinTech in Canadian payments; Finance Canada’s retail payments oversight framework; privacy; and how retail payments have changed in light of COVID-19.

If you were unable to attend, here are five takeaways from the event:

1. Canadian policymakers are working on changes to privacy laws, especially in the provinces.

2. Policymakers are moving forward with their efforts around data aggregation, or consumer-directed banking.

3. Payments Canada is moving forward with its Real-Time Rail (RTR).

4. FinTech solutions are a major part to increasing the speed and convenience for payments, especially for the underserved.

5. COVID has accelerate trends in the payments space like contactless and P2P.