Just like the rest of the world – whether it is splitting a dinner check, paying the grass cutter, or reimbursing your sibling for buying mom’s Mother’s Day gift – more and more people are using person-to-person payments as part of their daily routine. Canada is one of the world leaders in person-to-person payment technology, and it has the infrastructure to back it up – almost 100-percent of Canadians have access to sending or receiving Interac e-Transfers. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a leader in payment innovation, has just made it easier for clients to send and receive money by offering unlimited free Interac e-Transfer payments for all personal checking accounts.
Linda Mantia, executive vice-president, Digital, Payments and Cards at RBC says, “Offering free e-Transfers supports our commitment to helping our clients seamlessly and quickly send money how they want and when they want. As clients embrace new technologies and increase their use of mobile, we are always looking for ways to provide them with added value and convenience.” This decision is based on new statistics that show that Interac e-Transfers are growing at a rate of 50-percent per year. Mark O’Connell, president and CEO of Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation says that RBC recognizes that their clients are embracing and demanding to have digital payment options available as part of their core banking services. O’Connell says, “Clients want to be able to easily and securely pay and exchange money using funds in their bank accounts and our payment solutions, like Interac e-Transfer, help financial institutions meet this need.”
Mantia claims that RBC’s investment in payment transfer via mobility has resulted in more than $22 billion person-to-person payments in 2015. She says that “Today, more than 50 per cent of RBC e-Transfers are sent using a mobile device, which was less than 20-percent just a couple of years ago. It’s not a surprise our clients love RBC person-to-person payments as they are simple, instant, and now they are free.”
Back as far as 2003, RBC introduced Interac e-Transfer payments – they were one of the first financial institutions that made it possible for Bulk Disbursements that allowed businesses to send payments to multiple recipients at once. In 2013 RBC initiated its Secure Cloud mobile payments – keeping the customers’ sensitive data in the cloud, not on their phone. In 2014, RBC was the first Canadian financial institution to allow either debit or credit for mobile payments. Now, RBC just rolled out a newly designed RBC mobile app and RBC Wallet for Android, giving users convenient access to their payment and gift cards when you make a purchase. This provides a seamless and instant Interac e-Transfer between customers.