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“Over the next 12 to 18 months, we’re going to see a fairly significant move towards digitization,” he said.

The Purchase, N.Y.-based company has released a handful of I.T. products that try to smooth out points of friction: ShopThis! lets readers buy an item directly from a digital publication. MasterPass is a way to store card info online and proceed quicker to checkout. Pay With Rewards lets people redeem and keep track of loyalty points in real time. Qkr is a food ordering mobile platform at live events, which is used in New York City at Yankee Stadium and was also recently piloted at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

The assault on cash hinges on people keeping their bills in the bank and reaching for their credit cards even when they have enough money to pay for things on debit. Even as cash usage declines in Canada, a Bank of Canada spokeswoman noted in an email the value of banknotes in circulation has grown at the same rate as gross domestic product over the past 20 years.

“I don’t think too many people get up in the morning and say I cannot wait to make a payment today,” said Lang. “My guess is, that’s not really on the forefront of most minds.” But it’s on MasterCard’s.

Lang, who worked in Africa and the Middle East, praises Canada for its savvy payments network. It ranks second best in the world in MasterCard’s Mobile Payments Readiness Survey behind only Singapore. Once virtual wallets replace physical ones – and most people believe they will in due time – he predicts there will be no longer be a limit to how many credit and loyalty cards people will store in them and looks forward to that.

“I only have so many slots in my wallet today for cards,” Lang added. “If your cards are in a digital wallet, does it matter if you have five cards, 10 cards, or 20 cards?”

Financial Post

cpellegrini@nationalpost.com