Chase Paymentech Solutions is headquartered in the US and is the
world’s largest merchant acquirer for businesses accepting payments
via traditional point of sale, hospitality, internet, catalogue and
recurring billing. Chase Paymentech processed approximately 15.5
billion transactions in 2005, with more than $560 billion in annual
bankcard and debit volume in both Canada and the US. Chase
Paymentech’s customer base includes more than 600,000 merchants,
with nearly 1 million locations across Canada and the US.
In March 2006, Canadian payment association Interac, MasterCard
Canada, Visa Canada and many of their respective card issuers and
acquirers made a commitment to a broad industry migration to chip
technology in Canada. Beginning in 2007, many merchants and
cardholders will start to see the introduction of cards that
feature chip technology, and within three years of this date, it is
expected that the majority of cardholders and merchants will be
able to benefit from the new technology. Magnetic stripe
transactions will not be permitted in the Shared Cash Dispensing
Service for debit card cash withdrawals from ATMs after 31 December
2012, and magnetic stripe transactions will not be permitted in the
Interac Direct Payment Service at point of sale terminals after 31
December 2015.
Kevin Stanton, president of MasterCard Canada, said: “Chase
Paymentech has played a significant role in strengthening our
relationship with merchants and we look forward to continuing to
work together to introduce chip to their merchant customers in the
coming months and years. MasterCard and Chase Paymentech will help
reduce the cost of chip implementation and ease the transition to
chip by helping businesses become chip-ready in conjunction with
their regular equipment and system upgrades.”
Sam Jawad, president of Chase Paymentech Canada, said: “The
transition to chip is the most significant evolution of the
Canadian payments industry since the introduction of the credit
card in the 1960s. We are pleased to be the first Canadian acquirer
to earn MasterCard approval for processing chip transactions. And,
our merchant customers will be pleased, too, as we begin to work
with them to upgrade their checkouts and point of sale devices to
accept chip cards.”
