Central 1 Credit Union has joined credit unions in British Columbia and Ontario to launch what they are calling the first mobile person-to-person payments offering from Canadian financial institutions.
Prospera CU in Abbotsford, B.C., and Teachers CU in Hamilton, Ont., worked together to launch the Interac e-Transfer payment system that provides near real-time payments via smartphone or computer, the credit unions said.
"This is the logical evolution of mobile banking and as more retailers and financial institutions adopt mobile payments, the potential impact for consumers is virtually limitless," said Oscar van der Meer, chief technology officer for Central 1, the Vancouver-based provider of central banking, association and other services.
The new service extends the previous Interac E-mail Money Transfer service to the mobile channel. Central 1 said it began offering text banking in 2008 and added mobile Web banking and alerts in 2009.
