Report: Contactless Payments Grow in Canada

A new report on payments trends in 2018 from Payments Canada has found that Canadian consumers spent $129.9 billion CAD via contactless payments across the year. In total, Canadians initiated 4.1 billion contactless transactions, a 30 percent increase over 2017.

Mobile devices were used by close to 35 percent of Canadians for contactless payments on a regular basis, the report found. Cash payments declined 40 percent in volume since 2013. In total, electronic payments accounted for 73 percent of total payments volume and 59 percent of total payments value in 2018.

Credit cards also experienced impressive year-over-year growth in Canada, increasing 52 percent since 2013 to put the form factor on par with debit cards. In fact, Canada currently ranks second behind South Korea with highest volume use of credit cards per capita, Payments Canada reports. Rewards and the proliferation of ecommerce were largely responsible for the growth, the report said.

Online transfers grew 52 percent year-over-year from 2017 as peer-to-peer payments services continue to grow in popularity. Similarly, according to the report, check and paper volume accounted for only three percent of total volume in 2018, a 29 percent decrease since 2013. While they represent a small fraction of total volume, the value of those transactions is still significant, the report indicated; 39 percent of transaction value was transferred via both paper and electronic checks.

According to a press release, the report was compiled by Payments Canada with the help of payment service providers, payments consultants and researchers to help build a comprehensive understanding of the Canadian payments landscape in 2018.

Click here to download the report. To learn more about ETA’s advocacy efforts in Canada, click here.