CIBC, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal and TD Canada Trust are starting to offer a new Person-to-Person (P2P) money transfer service – Email Money Transfers – using email for notification while the banks transfer the funds using established and secure inter-bank settlement systems.  Desjardins Group, the dominant financial institution in Quebec, announced last week its intention to join the network.

Approximately five million Canadians banking online at the five banks will soon be able to send Email Money Transfers, while 15 million Canadians with email addresses (ComQUEST) and an account at any financial institution in Canada will be able to receive.  This makes the Canadian service the first and largest bank-to-bank, P2P payment network of its kind in the world.

“Over the next several weeks, Scotiabank, CIBC, Bank of Montreal and TD Canada Trust customers will start seeing the Email Money Transfer service in their online banking menu,” says Michael Ginsberg, CEO of Canadian company, CertaPay, the payment engine powering the service.  “Canadians will be able to email money – directly from their bank accounts to anyone with an email address and a Canadian bank account.”

“Email is fast, convenient and ubiquitous, making it a perfect medium for person-to-person notification,” says Colette Delaney, Senior Vice-President, Global Deposits & Payments, CIBC.  “When you add the trust Canadians have in their banks to move money electronically, you get Email Money Transfers, which is the fastest possible way to send money to another person.  We use email for instant notification, but the funds are transferred the way banks settle inter-bank transactions, such as cheques, ABM transactions and online bill payments – secure clearing mechanisms banks have used for years.”

To email money, a user logs in to their bank account, online, specifies a recipient by entering an email address, fills in the Email Money Transfer information (payment amount, account from which to withdraw the funds, security question and optional personal message) and presses send. CertaPay generates the email notification, which shows up in a recipient’s usual email Inbox. The recipient gets an email with hyperlinks to the recipient’s bank of choice to deposit the funds. The sender’s account is debited when sending an Email Money Transfer, and the recipient is credited when collecting the funds, meaning the money is available instantly to the recipient.

“We’ve all been in the position where we’ve had to get money to someone or get money from someone fast,” says Chuck Hounsell, Senior Vice-President, Electronic Banking at TD Canada Trust. “Up until now, the alternative has been to write cheques and send them in the mail or get cash and go see the person.  With Email Money Transfers, we can now provide our customers with a more convenient option.”

“Our customers will be able to use Email Money Transfers to send money to their kids at college or university, for gifts, group collections, IOUs and any small, personal payment that used to require a paper cheque or face-to-face cash transfer,” says Marnie Kinsley, Executive Vice-President, E-Business, Bank of Montreal.  “Email Money Transfers are for people who want to send money to another person as instantly as email and as securely as an ABM transaction.”

“Email Money Transfers are the electronic equivalent of a certified cheque – the funds are guaranteed and recipients have immediate access to them,” says Bob Grant, Senior Vice-President, Electronic Banking, Scotiabank.  “It’s a fast, convenient and secure way to transfer money to another person.”

“This is the world’s first, real-time, bank-based email money network, and it’s not at all surprising we launched it in Canada,” says Ginsberg.  “Canadians are very savvy about electronic banking. We are the biggest users of ABMs in the world and among the highest users of online banking and debit for purchasing.  Plus, Canadians trust their banks’ ability to move their money fast and securely. According to Ipsos-Reid, 96 per cent of Canadians said they preferred their bank to offer the service rather than a technology company like Microsoft or Yahoo.”

The Email Money Transfer service will be available to CIBC, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal and TD Canada Trust online banking customers over the next several weeks. Desjardins Group announced last week its intention to join the network to offer Email Money Transfers.  CertaPay is in negotiation with financial institutions representing the remaining banking industry; however, most banking customers with an email address and a Canadian bank account are able to receive Email Money Transfers electronically through the CertaPay Transfer Site.

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ABOUT BANK OF MONTREAL

Bank of Montreal, Canada’s first bank, is a highly diversified financial services institution. The bank operates more than 30 lines of business within its group of companies, including BMO Nesbitt Burns, one of Canada’s largest full-service investment firms and Chicago-based Harris Bank, a major U.S. mid-west financial services provider. Bank of Montreal is the sixth largest small business lender in North America and the second largest in Canada, providing financial services to almost half a million clients.

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