A. Introduction

AuthorM.H. Ogilvie
ProfessionLSM, B.A., LL.B., M.A., D.Phil., D.D., F.R.S.C. Of the Bars of Ontario and Nova Scotia Chancellor's Professor and Professor of Law, Carleton University
Pages345-346

Page 345

From a customer’s perspective, the evolution of payment methods offered by banks over the past decade as a result of technological advances has been dramatic, especially in comparison to the slow evolution of paper payment methods over the previous three hundred years. Until the early 1990s most transactions were in cash, by cheque, or by other negotiable instrument. However, since the late 1990s, most transactions have been executed electronically by use of various plastic payment cards whose original differentiated functions have now been reduced to one card, the debit card, or in some instances, the credit card or the credit card with debit card characteristics. While customers still use cash, cheques, and credit cards where appropriate for their purposes, the debit card is now used for ordinary banking transactions at ABMs operated by their own bank or as part of a network to which their bank belongs, for retail purchases at point of sale (POS), and also sometimes for some third party payment provider transactions that may or may not clear through the ACSS.

Chapter 9 described the payment systems over which payment transactions are carried out, but this chapter will describe the mechanisms by which customers may access those payment systems in order to make payments to other parties. At the outset, it is important to remember that a plastic card serves the same purpose as an oral instruction or a written cheque, that is, it is a means by which a customer

Page 346

gives a mandate to its bank to pay funds from the customer’s account to another person, the payee of those funds. The card, together with other means of identification, such as the personal identification number (PIN), serves to authenticate the customer much as a signature on a...

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