The Canadian buyer's checklist for an embedded payments partner

Most "how to choose a payments partner" checklists are written with a US platform in mind. If your merchants are in Toronto, Calgary or Trois-Rivières, a few of the questions that matter most never make the list.

Canadian ownership is moving fast right now, and the Francisco Partners deal for Moneris is the latest reminder that who owns your processor can change under you. So here's a practical checklist built for Canadian software platforms. Use it on us, and use it on everyone else too.

1. Can you settle in Canadian dollars, cleanly?

Ask how CAD settlement works, how often funds move, and what the merchant sees on their bank statement. If your merchants are Canadian, they shouldn't be doing currency math to understand a payout. Then ask the follow-up: what happens when a merchant sells in USD or another currency? Multi-currency is easy to demo and harder to run. ValPay supports multiple currencies across 40+ markets, but whatever partner you pick, ask to see the reporting, not just the feature list.

2. Which Interac, exactly?

"We support Interac" can mean several different things. Interac Debit at the terminal, Interac Debit online, and tokenized Interac in Apple Pay and Google Pay are different products with different integration paths. Ask your partner to name which ones they support today, which are on a roadmap, and which are not planned. A precise answer is a good sign. A vague one isn't.

3. Is there a Canadian entity, and a Canadian team?

Where the contracting entity sits matters for disputes, for support hours, and for who picks up the phone. ValPay is rooted in Montreal. PayFacto is the other Canadian-owned option worth putting on your shortlist. If you're comparing, ask each of us the same question: who will actually be on your account, and where are they?

4. How is data handled?

This is where people overclaim, so we'll be careful. Ask where cardholder and merchant data is stored and processed, which third parties touch it, and how that lines up with Loi 25 if you have Quebec merchants. Be wary of anyone who tells you everything stays in Canada without naming the rails underneath. ValPay's rails include Adyen and a Fiserv facilitator, and we'd rather tell you that up front than have you find out in diligence.

5. Do you support merchants in French?

If you serve Quebec, this isn't a nice-to-have. Ask about French-language onboarding, French-language support, and French-language documentation. Ask when the support desk is open and whether bilingual coverage holds on weekends. A merchant who can't get help in their language doesn't finish onboarding, and that's your activation number, not ours.

6. What happens if the ownership changes?

Read the change-of-control clause before you sign. Can the partner assign your agreement to a new owner? Do pricing, revenue share or support terms change if they do? Can you take your merchants with you? Nobody enjoys this conversation up front, but this year showed why it's worth having. Ownership alone isn't a reason to switch, and it isn't a reason to stay. The contract language is what protects you.

How to use this

Run the same six questions with every partner on your shortlist, including us. Write down the answers. Notice where someone gets specific and where they get slippery. The slippery answers usually tell you more than the confident ones.

If you want a quick read on where your own setup stands today, take ValPay's Payments Health Score at valpay.com/payments-health-score. It's free and takes about two minutes.