One of Canada’s big five banks has announced a new service allowing line of business users to make instantaneous bulk payments to vendors and customers.
Scotiabank revealed today that it is the first of Canada’s major financial institutions to offer bulk Interac e-transfers, which allows customers to schedule multiple disbursements in advance to a variety of payees.
“Scotiabank is pleased to be the first Canadian bank to offer this innovative new service to meet the needs of our business banking customers,” said Rania Llewellyn, senior vice-president of cash management and payment services at Scotiabank, in a statement. “We are always looking for new ways to make everyday business transactions fast, easy and secure for our customers, and with the Bulk Interac e-Transfer service, our business banking customers have more choices to send electronic payments efficiently.”
Prior to the launch of this service, Interac e-transfer users were limited when it came to scheduling payments, particularly to multiple recipients. This new feature aims to make already-popular electronic transfers more attractive to businesses hunting for alternatives to cash, credit cards and/or old-fashioned cheques. The ability to schedule these kind of regular, secure payments in advance could help cut back on administrative man-hours spent manually making such disbursements.
“The Bulk Interac e-Transfer service is a game-changer for commercial disbursements in Canada,” said Mark O’Connell, president and CEO of Interac, in a statement. “Our leadership within the Canadian payments space enables clients, such as Scotiabank, to leverage not only our expertise in electronic money transfers, but also our knowledge and proven capabilities in fraud detection and prevention, data analytics, direct messaging and reporting.”
The primary features of the new service include:
- Security: Recipients can securely deposit their funds from wherever they access their online banking accounts. And as with regular Interac e-trasnfers, every payment is password-protected; the recipient must provide the password to receive the funds.
- Flexibility: Recipients can receive an overnight processing option and payment notifications via their email address or cellphone number. These bulks payments also have no minimum amount, and can be scheduled as far ahead as 364 days.
- Customization: Businesses can generate custom HTML notifications so that owners can ensure brand cohesion is carried to payment notifications.
- Detailed Reporting: Businesses can receive real-time acknowledgment and periodic status reports on pending and cancelled transactions.