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In an effort to streamline operations, Interac Association, Canada’s nationwide debit network, and its corporate cousin Acxsys Corp. have reorganized into a single entity known as Interac Corp., the company announced Monday.
“This is an important milestone for Interac and a critical step in our continued success as one of Canada’s leading, economical payments providers,” Mark O’Connell, president and chief executive of Toronto-based Interac Corp., said in a news release. “Our new corporate structure will allow us to better invest in our innovation pipeline and potential, while continuing to provide the essential payment services that millions of Canadians, thousands of businesses and hundreds of financial institutions rely on every day.”
Historically, both Interac Association and Acxsys offered Interac-branded products and services. Canada’s major financial institutions formed Interac Association in 1984 as a cooperative to operate a shared network. In 1996, the eight financial institutions that built the network created Acxsys to develop new business partnerships and services.
Under a consent order from Canada’s Competition Tribunal, Interac Association since 1996 has operated as a not-for-profit. A 2013 amendment to the consent order allowed the association and Acxsys to become one company, but only now has the reorganization been completed. The new Interac Corp. has a single board of directors comprised of the CEO, four independent directors, and eight directors nominated by financial-institution shareholders.
Interac hasn’t yet released 2017 operating statistics, but the network handled 5.43 billion transactions in 2016, up 5% from 5.17 billion in 2015.
