B-8 Simultaneous provisioning and removal in mobile wallets of co-badged debit cards

Publication date: December 19, 2019

Effective date: April 1, 2020

This compliance bulletin of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) clarifies requirements under the Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Card Industry in Canada (the Code) as to how co-badged debit cards are provisioned and removed from mobile wallets or mobile devices.   

There are three issues addressed by this bulletin.

1. Provisioning of debit payment credentials to mobile wallets

FCAC expects that when both debit payment credentials can be provisioned simultaneously, consumers must be able to exercise their choice of provisioning a single debit payment credential or both, taking into account the following:

1. Debit payment credentials associated with each payment card network must be represented on separate payment applets consistent with Element 6 of the Code and Compliance Bulletin 2, and
2. That the simultaneous provisioning does not advantage one network over another

2. Removal of debit payment credentials associated with a co-badged debit card

FCAC expects that consumers will be allowed to separately delete individual debit payment credentials from mobile wallets.

3. Can mobile wallet providers set defaults during the provisioning of co-badged debit cards?

FCAC expects that consumers will be able to set the default payment options at the time of provisioning, taking into account the following:

1. Pre-set defaults can be changed by consumers at any time
2. Consumers retain full and unrestricted discretion to establish any default preference(s) for payment options, and
3. Selecting default preferences will only be done by consumers based on a clear and transparent process, clearly accessible through the mobile user interface, and consumers should be able to easily change default settings in a timely manner

FCAC expects PCNOs to communicate this information to relevant parties, including both Code and non-Code participants.