“Today, Canadians can pay for things in a bewildering number of ways, even by tapping a cell phone against a scanner,” Flaherty said in a statement Friday.
The task force will be chaired by Pat Meredith, a professional associate and senior adviser at the strategy consulting firm Monitor Group. Meredith is a former executive vice-president of corporate strategy at CIBC. The task force is expected to provide recommendations to the minister by the end of 2011.
Earlier this year, the federal Competition Bureau turned down a request by the Interac Association to allow the debit payment processor to become a for-profit business. Interac is governed by a consent order issued by the Competition Tribunal to prevent the company from engaging in anti-competitive practices. Interac’s desire to restructure from a not-for-profit association structure to a for_profit model requires a change to that order.
The federal regulator suggested that Interac could make other changes, including to its governance structure while maintaining its non-profit status, that would allow it to remain competitive to new challenges in the market.
However the bureau said it would be open to revisiting its rulings if things change in the future.
Visa and MasterCard have been eyeing the Canadian debit card market, which is dominated by Interac. MasterCard has also been actively expanding its Maestro debit program in Canada and has been working since late 2008 to increase acceptance.