Canadian Payments Association looking for input on long-term payments strategy

The Canadian Payments Association has launched a national consultation on its proposed long-term payments strategy, which seeks to prepare Canada’s national framework for the changing nature of payments.

The association, which operates Canada’s national clearing and settlement systems, has drafted a strategy to provide a common foundation to enable its members to deliver modern payments services and offerings to Canadians.

The strategy involves four main pillars: facilitating electronic payments; promoting domestic and international interoperability standards to make payments more efficient; modernizing the CPA’s regulatory framework to reflect new market and business realities; and offering new value-added services to CPA members and all users of Canada’s payment system.

“These are just some of the issues at the heart of the CPA’s new consultation process and Long Term Payment Strategy,” said president and CEO Guy Legault, “The CPA’s payments strategy will continue to evolve over time, based on the input of the users of our systems. I encourage all stakeholders to participate in our consultation process and to take part in building a renewed payments system for Canada.”

The strategy is a reflection of the user demands in terms of payment services in Canada and around the world. The CPA finds that retailers want faster and more cost-effective payments, while consumers demand more convenience and broader payment options, and billers want a faster and easier way of compiling the information required with payments to enable straight-through processing. As more companies do business overseas, the CPA is also seeking to enable regional interoperability of payments systems.

The consultation process for CPA members, stakeholders and the public is set to begin later this month and will include webinars, written consultation, and five “town-hall” sessions across Canada.

The CPA believes this research and feedback will strengthen the strategy and will lay the solid foundation for efficient, safe and sound clearing and settlement systems.

IE