RBC Royal Bank has become the first major Canadian financial institution to offer its clients the ability to use their debit cards when shopping in the United States.

Starting today, RBC clients can now use their debit cards to access their primary Canadian chequing account for purchases at over 1 million retailers in the U.S.

The new service is a result of an alliance between Acxsys Corp., the architects of the Interac national PIN debit network in Canada, and NYCE Corp., one of the largest debit networks in the United States.

“At RBC we are always looking for ways to make things easier for our clients and a number of our clients have been asking for U.S. debit card access for quite some time,” said Carolyn Burke, vp, payments and eCommerce. “For a lot of people, debit cards simplify their lives. They are much more convenient than carrying large amounts of cash across the border.”

Debit receipts will show purchase amounts in American dollars, and the amount debited to the account will be in Canadian dollars.

U.S. purchases are converted to Canadian dollars at an exchange rate 2.5% over the interbank spot rate as defined by Acxsys Corp. in effect at the time of processing.

RBC clients heading to the U.S. this weekend should look for the NYCE network brand at point of sale terminals.