This study provides insight into the costs of cash, debit card and credit card payments made at the point of sale in Canada in 2014. For each payment method, it examines the total resource costs, which capture the overall use of resources by society as a whole. Using extensive survey data from...

We use consumer surveys conducted in April, July and November 2020 to study how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the demand for cash and the use of various methods of payment. Continuing from Chen et al. (2020, 2021), we use data from the Bank Note Distribution System (BNDS) to track how the...

Since 2016, the Bank of Canada has conducted annual surveys to monitor awareness, adoption and usage of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (Henry et al. 2018, 2019a, 2019b). This report incorporates results from the 2019 Bitcoin Omnibus Survey and the November 2020 Cash Alternative Survey. We...

This paper studies Canadians' access to cash using the geographical distribution of automated banking machines (ABMs). We find that over 97% of urban Canadians have access to ABMs in their communities, while 92% of rural people have access to at least one ABM. During the pandemic, there have...

As the sole issuer of bank notes, the Bank of Canada conducts Methods-of-Payment (MOP) surveys to obtain a detailed and representative snapshot of Canadian payment choices, with a focus on cash usage. The 2017 MOP Survey is the third iteration. This paper finds that the overall cash volume and...

In recent years, the rise in digital payment innovations such as contactless cards and Interac e-Transfer has spurred a discussion about the future of cash at the point of sale. The COVID19 pandemic has also contributed to this discussion: While consumers reported that some merchants started to...

In recent years, the rise in digital payments has spurred a discussion in Canada and other countries about the future of cash at the point of sale. To better understand trends in payment methods accepted by Canadian businesses, including cash acceptance and the impact of innovations such as...

This note uses industry data and a unique dataset of small and medium-sized merchants to provide insights into the acquirer-merchant market in Canada. Three main findings are presented. First, smaller merchants pay their acquirer more for every dollar of card payment than larger merchants....