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Canadian debit card network Interac Corp. says it will soon offer its cardholders the ability to make cross-border purchases through a partnership with Ingenico Group’s Bambora payment-services subsidiary.
The move is significant because it will create a stronger e-commerce presence for the Interac Debit service in international markets, giving Canadians another alternative to paying with other payment networks.
“Our work with Bambora will take Interac Debit for e-commerce across the border and extend its many advantages to international merchants serving Canadian customers online,” Nader Henin director of digital payments at Toronto-based Interac, said in a news release. “This is another example of the way we at Interac are continually expanding payment choice and convenience for Canadian consumers and merchants. Canadians use Interac Debit more than any other payment card, with over 5.7 billion transactions made in 2017, and now the service will soon be available for cross-border e-commerce purchases for the first time.”
Stockholm-based Bambora was founded in 2015 and provides about 120,000 merchants globally with online, mobile, and in-store payment services, according to a spokesperson. As of late last year, the merchant count included 38,000 in North America, 90% of them Canadian. Over the course of three years Bambora acquired 13 companies in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and North America, including Canadian payments provider Beanstream in 2016.
In a diversification move last November, Ingenico Group, best known for manufacturing point-of-sale payment terminals, bought Bambora for €1.5 billion ($1.73 billion) from Nordic Capital.
Interac said Bambora merchants’ chargeback risk with cross-border debit transactions will be eliminated because Interac uses a so-called “good funds” model in which money is deducted immediately from a cardholder’s bank account for a purchase.
