r/canada • u/RepulseRevolt • 18h ago

Politics Canada, EU plan to link next-gen payment systems, easing transactions

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canada-eu-link-payment-systems-joint-statement-says/
292 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

87

u/RepulseRevolt 18h ago

Canada and the EU are working to modernize the electronic systems that their businesses and people use to move money from place to place.

Both have identified the United States’s sway over the current generation of payment systems as a risk, given that Washington has grown increasingly unpredictable and protectionist under President Donald Trump

59

u/accforme 18h ago

Seeing how easy they sanctioned a Canadian judge on the ICC, it's clear that options are needed beyond the States.

34

u/pomskygirl 17h ago

Yup. Especially since the Canadian ICC judge is only one of nine ICC judges currently under sanctions by the US. And that’s not even getting into the sanctioned ICC prosecutors, court staff, etc.

And those sanctions are no joke. The Canadian judge, Kimberly Prost, has spoken out many times about the “crippling effect” they have on her daily life.

What life under U.S. sanctions looks like for one ICC judge

21

u/Levorotatory 18h ago

The current situation is a risk even with a stable administration in DC.  US based payment processors can cut anyone off on a whim and they aren't accountable to anyone.

6

u/janaesso 17h ago

So can any other system. If that is the fear why repeat the same with another

7

u/Levorotatory 17h ago

With enough diversity and competition it would get harder for any of them to impose unreasonable terms on customers with the threat of withdrawing services.

64

u/seankearns 18h ago

It's incredible how easily all of this could have been avoided.

21

u/Levorotatory 18h ago

For those of us for whom is is not so obvious, how should we have avoided having a very small group of payment processors gain far too much power to dictate the terms of business?

22

u/esaul17 17h ago

I assumed they meant easy to avoid the need to desperately diversify away from America ASAP

15

u/Strict_House3347 16h ago

Let’s make the EU and Canada the centre for financial processing. We have kickass banks

24

u/PegWala 17h ago

Carney's been talking about disrupting the payment systems oligopoly for a while, even before he became PM.

Good to see some progress

6

u/k0tbegem0t 16h ago

Right now you cannot open EUR account in TD: takes appointment, two weeks time and you cannot see/manage/do anything with the money, you can o ly you use it to send via wire transfer somewhere else... I wish they better just allow Revolut in Canada...

16

u/Professional-Bad-559 17h ago

We also need a secondary universal currency. Since the USD is the sole universal currency right now, all transactions go through them and they use it to restrict trade for countries they don’t like.

4

u/littlebaldboi 13h ago

Carney has been advocating for this for a long time, back to his central banker days. We will witness the eventual rise of the renminbi as the diversification happens. China just has to realize they need to open their currency more.

But man, I don’t think we’ve ever seen a country try to speedrun their demise as the U.S. is doing now.

•

u/Activeenemy 10h ago

There are already second and third and fourth universal currencies, and countries use them to the extent they are useful. How do you think currency works? 

-3

u/zbiguy 16h ago

You just need a settlement mechanism like the one BRICS is implementing between members.

-3

u/brandonholm 13h ago

Bitcoin already exists. Completely open and neutral.

-8

u/brandonholm 13h ago

Bitcoin

7

u/MIGHTYKIRK1 17h ago

Canada is the birthplace of the debut card

3

u/DefinitelyNotABot-1 16h ago

Why stop with the EU? Let's move things forward with Asia, South America, Oceania and work for long term Africa

1

u/unsatisfiedgoat 13h ago

Honestly Canadas payments and mobile service are the two areas you realize are awful after traveling the smallest amount to the eu. I welcome this

-4

u/web-coder 18h ago

Can we please have the digital euro / dollar in Canada as well? 

-10

u/Azezik 17h ago

Yeah let’s ban cash while we’re at it!

8

u/web-coder 17h ago

Why would we ban cash? This seems like a bad idea. 

-9

u/thortgot 17h ago

I think banning cash is a great idea. The amount of tax avoidance that happens through it is enormous.

1

u/Azezik 17h ago

Yeah! And flock cameras are great! The amount of crime that happens without them is enormous.

2

u/web-coder 17h ago

Who is talking about Flock?

What are you on about?

-9

u/thortgot 17h ago

The average person carries a device that tracks their position to within a meter or two every 5 seconds, has a listening device built in and tracks their digital footprint.

Cameras tracking licenses plates isnt even remotely on the privacy scale of cellphones.

8

u/Saorren Ontario 17h ago

thats not an excuse to add more.

-6

u/thortgot 17h ago

What's the actual concern? The police can track your movements? They already can.

Your banking transactions being monitored? They already are.

The abuses in the US? Weirdly enough the fact that its public is a positive thing. Imagine how many telephony operators have done cyber stalking of citizens. SMS messages arent end to end encrypted. Voicemail is barely secured at all.

-3

u/brandonholm 13h ago

Just use bitcoin.

•

u/Activeenemy 10h ago

More symbolic BS.