Interac selects Microsoft Azure as part of hybrid cloud strategy

Canada’s Interac has selected Microsoft Azure cloud services for payments.

Azure was chosen for its “scale, security and resiliency”

Interac says it required a “trusted, reliable and secure cloud platform to support ongoing innovation and product development”.

Interac has seen a steep growth in volumes, processing almost one billion e-Transfer transactions sent since the beginning of April 2020.

Peter Sweers, CTO and COO at Interac, says: “An important part of our digital transformation strategy is integrating a secure and compliant cloud platform that positions us for future growth and meets the demands of the quickly evolving digital payments landscape.”

Microsoft Azure was chosen, he says, “for its increased scale, security and always-on resiliency”.

Azure will form part of a hybrid model of public and on-premises private cloud at Interac.

Interac claims nearly 300 financial institutions connected to its network, with a daily average of 18 million payments and money exchanges.

For the country as a whole, according to a report from Payments Canada, electronic payments accounted for approximately 79 percent of overall Canadian payment transactions in 2020.

Due to Covid-19, it is predicted that even more Canadian consumers and businesses are opting for digital methods of payment instead of cash or cheques.