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About Us
ACT Canada is a not-for-profit membership association promoting the use of advanced card technologies. We provide a neutral forum for stakeholders to learn, share information and pursue their goals. Founded in 1989, we are internationally recognized as a reliable source of information on advanced cards and the Canadian marketplace.

ACT Canada provides our members with exposure through our newsletter, networking events, speaking slots and various business opportunities. Our members represent the advanced card industry, financial institutions, government agencies and other interested parties.

For more information about ACT Canada and our members, please visit http://www.actcda.com
EMV Canada

The purpose of this site is to provide information related to Canadian Chip Migration.

Members of the Canadian payments system have committed to move their payment cards to chip-enabled debit and credit cards. This move will add additional security features to the payments system. Unlike magnetic stripe cards, chip cards are highly counterfeit resistant.

More about Chip Migration
Card issuers are using a standard called EMV, developed by Europay MasterCard, and VISA for chip-based debit and credit cards. This standard has been in use and proven in many countries around the world.

Chip-based cards contain an embedded computer chip that chip-enabled terminals are able to read - providing increased protection against counterfeit and lost and stolen card fraud by validating the card and the cardholder.

The migration to chip cards and point-of-sale terminals in Canada will take place over several years.

Each financial institution and payment service provider has its own timelines and strategies for issuing chip cards and rolling out chip terminals.

It is expected that Canada will reach critical mass of cards, ATMs and point-of-sale (POS) terminals by 2010.