Transaction handling
Any business, planning to integrate with a Canadian payment processor, has to integrate with Canada’s main debit network – Interac Association – first. Integration with Interac is quite similar to integrations with other payment card associations or debit card networks. However, it requires the implementation of certain transaction handling mechanisms. For processing of card-present transactions (including EMV payments and ordinary swipe payments) in Canada an additional validation mechanism is used. As a result, any EMV terminal has to be injected with an additional key. For card-not-present transactions some Canadian processors use a special verification mechanism, similar to 3D secure.
More information on handling of Interac payments, payment processing, and payment gateway integrations in Canada is available in the respective article on Paylosophy.