The Edmonton Journal
Thursday 21 December 95

By Ron Chalmers
Journal Business Writer

New Global Debit Card Launched

Capital City Savings and Credit Union is launching a system that will let Canadian consumers make debit-card purchases while travelling abroad.
The Maestro Debit Network also will let Canadian merchants make debit-card sales to foreign visitors.

Maestro now operates in "hundreds of thousands of retail locations around the world," says Guy Kerr, Capital City's assistant vice-president.

In Maestro's Canadian debut Wednesday, Craig Penney of MasterCard International used a card from a New York credit union to buy a print of the Edmonton skyline at the Experience Edmonton shop in Eaton Centre.

The credit union will soon start marketing the system to retailers throughout Edmonton, Kerr said. Credit union members will be able to use it early in 1996.

Consumers will access Maestro by using their credit union card, just as they now access the Interac system -- which supports debit-card purchases only within Canada.

Both systems enable the electronic transfer of funds from a consumer's account to a merchant's account. Fees for using the Maestro system have not been announced.

Capital City will be the first financial institution in Canada to participate in the Maestro Network. Eventually, other MasterCard affiliates may become Maestro affiliates.

Maestro is a joint venture between MasterCard International and EuroPay International.