Canada's payments association Interac began the national roll out of Chip and PIN debit cards in October after participants in a trial gave the technology the thumbs up.

Interac says the migration will take several years, with each bank and payment processor following their own timeline, but insists all merchant terminals must be compliant by 31 December 2015.

Moneris, a joint investment between RBC Royal Bank and BMO Bank of Montreal, processes more than three billion card transactions a year for merchants at over 350,000 locations across North America.

The processor has signed for VeriFone EMV and PCI-approved terminals to help merchants deal with the migration.

Moneris has selected Vx 810 and Vx 810 Duet countertop systems, both of which can be pre-equipped or field-upgraded with a contactless module, as well as the GPRS version of the Vx 670, a handheld payment device designed specifically for wireless, customer-facing payments.

"VeriFone's Vx Solutions line provides us with options to meet the payment needs of our broad merchant base and their migration to EMV," says Jeff Guthrie, COO, Moneris.