Payments Canada recently announced a proposal for a new rule
(the Proposed Rule) aimed at increasing the availability of
point-of-service (POS) debit card acceptance in Canada. The
underlying goal of the Proposed Rule is the transition towards
digital payments and decreasing reliance on cash transactions. In
conjunction with the Proposed Rule, Payments Canada released a consultation paper on Delayed Authorization
POS which is open for feedback until June 23, 2019.
Traditional Electronic Payments
In a traditional payments system, provision of service is
predicated upon a debit or credit card transaction being duly
authorized. This requires a cardholder to present the payment card
and provide the card's details (PIN) in the merchant's
checkout system. This system forwards the card's details to the
merchant's bank who is responsible to obtain the funds for the
merchant's account. This involves using a payment processor to
contact the cardholder's bank, which assesses