On Tuesday, October 18, the CPPO held its first ever Hill Day in Ottawa. Led by CPPO’s Executive Director Jennifer Tramontana, members participated in a packed day of advocacy efforts to demonstrate the size, strength, and innovation of the open-loop prepaid industry in Canada.
Prepaid is enabling choice and competition for financial services, bringing costs down for Canadians and opening up more convenient, digital ways to move and save money. This is good for everyone but particularly underserved communities who are benefiting from improved financial health and stability, said Tramontana.
CPPO representatives held 13 meetings with officials across the government. This included direct, in-person engagement with:
Members of Parliament (MPs)
Senators on the Finance and Banking Committees
Senior political staff in key Minister’s offices
High-ranking public servants in key government departments, including Finance Canada
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC).
“The day was a resounding success and has generated tremendous momentum for our organization with public policy makers at the federal level in Canada. Hill days are one of the most effective ways of letting elected officials know our organization’s views on issues through direct, in-person engagement,” said Noah Niznick, Managing Director of Public Affairs Advisors, who advises the CPPO on government relations matters. They allow lawmakers to associate faces with the issues being presented which, in many cases, makes all the difference.”
Here is a brief recap of what was discussed, along with the key outcomes from CPPO’s engagement [the full summary is exclusive to CPPO members. Click here to learn about CPPO membership.]
Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Regulations: CPPO made the case for amendments to Canada’s AML regulations to better reflect the realities of running a corporate incentive or rewards program. Members also met with officials at FINTRAC and Finance Canada who agreed to convene a joint meeting to establish a regulatory pathway to remediate the industry’s concerns.
Government Disbursements: CPPO advocated for the federal government to adopt open-loop prepaid products as part of the suite of tools used to disburse citizen benefits and tax payments.
Open Banking and Prepaid Innovation: CPPO members met with the Office of the Associate Minister of Finance which is responsible for the implementation of open banking in Canada. The meeting allowed members to continue to position prepaid as the premier channel of innovation in financial services in the absence of an open banking framework.
Retail Payments Supervision: CPPO met with Ron Morrow, Executive Director responsible for Retail Payments Supervision at the Bank of Canada regarding the application of the Retail Payments Activities Act (RPAA) on the open-loop payments industry.
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