Contactless Limit Increase for Debit and Credit Qorus Banking Innovation Awards 2021

As of March 18, 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, Desjardins decided to contribute to health measures by increasing the contactless limit for credit and debit cards from $ 100 to $ 250. This initiative has enabled a sharp increase in the purchasing volume of transactions carried out without the customers having to insert their card into a payment terminal, thus reducing the risk of contamination. The innovation proved to be a great success, later adopted the other financial institutions, and by the Visa, MasterCard and Interac payment networks. It became the new standard in Canada. The limit for contactless transactions can be made at two levels, issuer (card) or acquirer (point of sale at the merchant). We have increased both limits for all Visa and Mastercard cards, for mobile payment and physical cards. It applies to personal and business cards.