The US already has several debit card networks; debit cards are also required to be usable on at least two unaffiliated networks, so there's a requirement for options while charging a card. [1] However, debit card transactions are unpopular. Users would rather pay later than now, especially when dealing with fraud or returns; rewards credit cards are popular and merchants typically don't charge more for credit than debit, so the user gets a nominal dollar discount and a time value of money discount when using credit (otoh, the merchant also gets paid with a discount and paid in arrears).

Many of the interbank networks were formed by a consortium of banks, as was Interac; Mastercard was also formed this way (as Interbank).

[1] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/chapter-II/subchapter-...

The Canadian government unbanked protestors they were unhappy with.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-pro...

I think Americans are better off with annoying blocks on porn than the alternative.

Briefly reading about it Iterac for the first time, it looks basically just like a Canadian version of Visa.

Tangentially, Canada has a much saner banking system than the US, in that it has a handful of very large banks which are inherently much more stable than the many thousands of banks/credit unions in the US.

as a Canadian its bizarre that the USA of all places is behind us in card-payment technology. I went to LA in 2016 and they had never heard of a chip in a credit card, only swipe.

Perhaps Canada should hang its head in shame and stay humbly quiet on the topic of de-banking

https://www.newsweek.com/banks-have-begun-freezing-accounts-...

Care to elaborate? Based on the Interac Wikipedia page, I see nothing that would indicate that their monopoly in Canada is any better than the MasterCard/Visa Duopoly in the USA.

I hadn't heard of Interac before but it looks perfect.

It’s outrageous that private duopolies control > 95% of transactions in the country.