Canada’s debit network Interac is reportedly adding a backup network provider after this past week’s large-scale outage at Rogers, which had left millions of clients unable to complete payments.
In statements shared with Reuters, the company’s management noted:
“We are adding a supplier (besides Rogers) to strengthen our existing network redundancy so Canadians can continue to rely on Interac daily.”
The Rogers outage, which had lasted throughout Friday, had left Canadian consumers unable to carry out debit transactions online and in-store.
The massive outage also disrupted the widely-used e-transfer service, which lets the clients of 13 Canadian financial institutions send funds directly from their banking accounts to the accounts of other customers and companies, using just their email address or mobile phone number.
In an email sent to their clients, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri had tried to blame the huge outage on “a network system failure following a maintenance update in our core network, which caused some of our routers to malfunction.”
As covered, Interac is a Canadian interbank network that links financial institutions and other enterprises “for the purpose of exchanging electronic financial transactions.”
Interac serves as the Canadian debit card system and “the predominant funds transfer network via its e-Transfer service.”
As reported in June 2022, Interac had been supporting the Canadian Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal at Collision Conference.
Interac President and CEO, Mark O’Connell, was joined by The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, “to showcase the company’s on-site fundraiser at the Collision Conference in support of the Canadian Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal.”
The fundraiser was described as “an interactive installation that allows Collision Conference attendees to tap their Interac Debit card or mobile wallet to donate directly to the cause.”
Interac, a proud presenting partner of the Collision Conference, had said it would “match all donations made through the installation up to $25,000.”
For more details on this update, check here.
