As one of the world’s leading digital payment firms, the numbers reported by Visa are impressive. With more than 3 billion cards in circulation worldwide and over 46 million merchants spread over 200 countries, they completed a total volume of transactions of $11 trillion as of June 2018. Yet, it is possible that Visa will become even more important in Canada in the years to come. What are the factors behind their possible growth and what might it mean for Canadians?
What can Visa be used for currently?
It is worth remembering that Visa is already widely accepted by merchants across Canada. The Visa Canada site confirms that over 44,000 merchants in this country accept Visa Debit cards. Their cards can currently be used to pay for a range of different products and services. For example, in terms of online shopping Visa can be used to pay in stores such as eBay and the Real Canadian Superstore. You can also use this card when looking for deals at Walmart.
Visa cards can also be used to pay in the Microsoft store, with Windows 10X PCs from ASUS, Dell and HP expected to hit the market in 2020. In-store point of sale machines will let you pay with one of these cards in the majority of shops around the country too. And they can be used to pay for many different types of entertainment services. For instance, another possibility comes from the Betway Casino website where customers can fund their accounts using either one of two different payment methods in order to play slots, blackjack, roulette, and other casino games in a safe, secure environment. In this same way, you can choose to pay for many other kinds of services in the country. It is possible to pay for Netflix’s streaming services to watch big NBA games or to book your Air Canada flights using a card. Air Canada also offers the CIBC Air Canada® AC conversion™ Visa Prepaid Card and describes it as the easiest way to travel with as many as ten currencies on a single card.
The growth of online and cashless purchases
There is no doubt that the number of financial transactions carried out using cards is growing all the time. Indeed, Canada is regarded as being one of the leading nations in terms of introducing new, cashless technology. Sweden is an example of what can happen when a country moves towards a cashless society. It is reported that just 2% of transactions are carried out here using cash. Studies suggest that this number will fall to under 0.5% in the near future. As result, the amount of money in circulation in Sweden has dropped drastically in recent years, with a 45% reduction noted from 2007. In addition, estimates carried out by BCG suggest that moving to a cashless economy could benefit some countries’ annual GDP by up to 3%.
What does the arrival of Revolut mean?
One of the important advances in this area could come with Revolut’s arrival in Canada. This is one of Europe’s fastest-growing financial companies. According to the Revolut website, over seven million people already use their services to spend or to transfer money. While they work with MasterCard in Europe, Revolut issued a statement confirming that they would use Visa to expand into 24 new markets globally. This will take the total number of countries in which they are present up to 56. These new countries include Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as a number of countries in Latin America and Asia. This new arrival into the market will give Canadians some extra reasons to use Visa.
The future of Visa in Canada
As we have seen, there are a couple of different factors that should influence the continued growth of Visa in Canada. First of all, there is the move toward a cashless society that will see more and more people using their cards instead of physical notes and coins.
Secondly, the arrival of Revolut is a sign that Visa is looking at embracing new technologies to increase their reach and appeal. The combination of these factors should help to ensure that Visa becomes the main payment method for more Canadians than ever before.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
