What they're calling the country's first mobile person-to-person payments service by a financial institution has been launched by three Canadian credit unions.
Central 1 worked with Prospera CU in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and Teachers CU in Hamilton, Ontario, to launch the Interac e-Transfer payment system that provides nearly instant payments via smartphone or computer, the credit unions said.
"Canadians have traditionally been eager to adopt new technology and there are already 22 million wireless subscribers in Canada," said Oscar van der Meer, chief technology officer for Central 1, the Vancouver-based provider of central banking, association and other services. "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."
The new service extends the previous Interac Email 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.
