Use of Interac e-Transfer® service surges in 2018

Canadians used the digital money transfer service more than one million times per day last year

TORONTO, Feb. 19, 2019 /CNW/ - The Interac e-Transfer service is showing no signs of slowing down, with Canadian consumers and businesses using the platform at record levels. Interac Corp. released today new record numbers for its Interac e-Transfer service, which reports more than 371 million transactions in 2018, worth a total of more than $132 billion. This represents a 54 per cent increase in volume and a 45 per cent increase in value over 2017.

"The continued adoption and significant year-over-year growth of Interac e-Transfer demonstrates Canadians' preference for convenient digital money transfer services like Interac e-Transfer as an alternative to cash or cheque," said Anurag Kar, Director, Digital Push Payments at Interac. "As the payment landscape evolves, we will continue to deliver solutions to suit the changing needs of consumers and businesses across Canada," he added.

Coast to coast, Canadians are embracing the Interac e-Transfer service, using it on average over one million times a day and over 35 million times each month. Whether it is to send, request or receive money, consumers continue to choose the service for everyday needs like splitting dinner tabs, paying rent, sending money to family and friends, and settling up with their babysitter, with the average user sending over three transactions per month, with an average transaction size of $357.

And it's not just consumers.  Increasingly, business owners are seeking digital solutions to better manage business administration and cashflow. Interac e-Transfer provides a transformative way to simplify and streamline business payments, with the ability to request and make payments, ultimately saving small businesses time and money.  

Interac reports 80 per cent of Canadians using online banking are registered to use Interac e-Transfer, with over 15 million unique active users every month.

Stats at a Glance: Interac e-Transfer Usage in 2018

• November 30^th was the platform's single busiest day, with over two million transactions sent.
• Almost 76 per cent of Interac e-Transfer transactions are deposited on a mobile device.
• Over four million users are registered for Autodeposit, a feature which enables funds go directly into a recipient's bank account without the need to answer a security question.
• Meanwhile, the Request Money feature, which allows Canadians to request money from a recipient, was used nearly one million times.
• Businesses sent over $465MM using our Interac e-Transfer Bulk Disbursement feature – allowing businesses to send bulk payments in a streamlined, secure, and cost-efficient way in a single file upload from online or mobile banking.

About the Interac e-Transfer platform

Interac e-Transfer, a digital money transfer platform, is the fastest and safest way for Canadians to transfer money directly from one bank account to another. Every day, Interac e-Transfer and Interac e-Transfer Bulk Disbursement are relied upon to send and receive money securely, conveniently and efficiently via person-to-person (P2P), person-to-business (P2B), business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-person (B2P) transactions.

Users can access the platform through a participating financial institution's online or mobile banking application to send money to anyone with an email address or mobile phone number and a bank account in Canada – without requiring any personal financial information. Transferred funds remain secure with financial institutions, which settle with each other through Payments Canada's settlement systems. More than 255 financial institutions offer access to Interac e-Transfer.

The Interac e-Transfer platform offers unique capabilities, such as 24/7/365 availability, real-time payment notifications, analytics, and reporting. All users are protected with multiple layers of security including encryption technology, financial institution authentication and proprietary risk management making it one of the most secure P2P solutions globally.

For more information, visit interac.ca/en/etransfer

About Interac Corp.

Interac Corp. operates an economical, world-class debit payments system with broad-based acceptance, reliability, security, and efficiency. The organization is one of Canada's leading payments brands and is chosen an average of 16 million times daily to pay and exchange money. For more than 30 years, Interac Corp. and its predecessors, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation, have facilitated secure financial transactions through the development of innovative and convenient debit and money transfer solutions. A leader in the prevention and detection of fraud, the organization has one of the lowest rates of fraud globally. Visit newsroom.interac.ca or follow @INTERAC on Twitter. Interac Corp. has a diverse group of shareholders that includes banks, credit unions, caisses populaires, payment processors and merchants.

All statistics based on Interac e-Transfer internal data analysis. Note: No personal identifiable information (PII) was collected or shared in this data analysis.

Interac e-Transfer is a registered trade-mark of Interac Corp.

SOURCE Interac Corp.

Media Contact: Interac Corporation, 416-869-2017, [email protected]