Interac Association, a Canadian national provider of debit services, recently announced a new mobile-based debit offering. Working with Royal Bank and Moneris, the Interac Flash application enables consumers to pay with their smartphone, regardless of carrier, as long as their bank offers the Flash service.

In a market that’s been relatively slow to adopt mobile payments, Interac’s service may be a game changer.Debit is the most popular form of payment in Canada, so this is the naturalextension of that payment option. When coupled with the fact that you can use this regardless of your carrier. Other services in Canada are tied to a particular bank or carrier meaning the market is very limited.

Royal Bank, Scotiabank and TD all offer Flash-enabled debit cards, and RBC has said that transactions will be free to personal banking customers. For consumers to adopt mobile payments, giving them free transactions on a phone they own on their preferred carrier is going to go a long way. Which is what the Canadian market needs to get mobile payments moving. The next step will be looking at how to enable mobile payments for the unbanked, but one thing at a time, right?