Payments Canada welcomes four new Directors to its Board

OTTAWA, June 18, 2016 – Today, Payments Canada welcomes four new directors to its Board. With the election of these four newest Board members, our path to a new governance model is nearly complete.

Under the leadership of the Chair, Eileen Mercier and the President and CEO, Gerry Gaetz, the new directors will join the rest of the Board as they focus on carrying out its strategy to modernize Canada’s core national payments infrastructure.

The new directors offer an impressive and diverse range of expertise, with distinguished track records in governance, high technology and operational knowledge.

• Dan Dickinson – participant director. Dickinson is Vice-President of Digital Banking for Equitable Bank, has led efforts to design, build and launch Equitable Bank’s digital operation, EQ Bank.
• Marie Lynne Desrochers – participant director. Desrochers the Senior Vice-President of Commercial and International Solutions for the National Bank of Canada, brings more than 25 years of national banking and financial services experience.
• David T. Barnard – independent director. Barnard is an experienced senior executive with an impressive list of board experience, including formerly as Lead Director for the Bank of Canada. He is currently the President and Vice-Chancellor, and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Manitoba.
• Susan Doniz – independent director. Doniz has served on more than a dozen corporate, private and non-profit boards with particular attention to financial, digital, technology, retail and consumer goods, and has been named one of Canada’s most powerful women by the Women’s Executive Network.

“I would like to welcome our new directors and also to thank all those who sought nomination on Payments Canada’s Board this year. We had a very strong array of nominees,” said Ms. Mercier. “These are exciting times at Payments Canada and I am looking forward to working with this high-calibre group of professionals to bring positive change to the payments ecosystem.”

The Board of Directors is composed of 12 elected directors (seven independent directors, five directors selected from Payments Canada’s vast network of financial institutions), and Payments Canada’s President and CEO. As part of Payments Canada’s governance framework, a certain number of Board positions come up for election each year during the annual meeting. Eligibility criteria for directors, including independence requirements, are set by the Canadian Payments Act, its regulations and Payments Canada’s guidelines.

For more extensive biographical information on the Payments Canada’s Board of Directors, please visit our website.

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About Payments Canada:

Payments Canada ensures that financial transactions in Canada are carried out safely and securely each day. The organization underpins the Canadian financial system and economy by owning and operating Canada’s payment clearing and settlement infrastructure, including associated systems, by-laws, rules and standards. The value of payments cleared and settled by Payments Canada in 2015 was nearly $50 trillion, or $197 billion every business day. These encompass a wide range of payments made by Canadians and businesses involving inter-bank transactions, including those made with debit cards, pre-authorized debits, direct deposits, bill payments, wire payments and cheques. Payments Canada is the brand name of the Canadian Payments Association.

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