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Mastercard introduces Touch Card by Mastercard™ in Canada
Eight in ten Canadians agree it’s important to embed accessibility in financial products for the sight loss community. As payment cards continue to evolve to drive accessibility while adopting modern, flat designs for increased security, Mastercard is introducing Touch Card by Mastercard in Canada.
This accessible system of payment cards has unique notches that allow the sight loss community to identify their credit, debit and prepaid cards with just a touch.
“The Touch Card feature is inclusive by design and addresses a longstanding challenge faced by Canadians with sight loss when engaging in everyday financial activities by helping make their payments easier,” said Shawna Miller, Senior Vice President, Canada Marketing & Communications, Mastercard, Canada. “At Mastercard, we’re to proud foster innovation like Touch Card to help make participating in the digital economy more inclusive, secure and seamless for the sight loss community in Canada.”
Touch Card features an innovative system of notches – rounded for debit, squared for credit and triangular for prepaid – so cardholders can easily identify their cards with just a touch. This helps them quickly identify and correctly orient their cards during a transaction, offering greater security and independence.
“Touch Card by Mastercard is a welcomed and important step forward in improving the accessibility of payment cards in Canada for people who are blind, Deafblind, or have low vision,” said Wayne Henshall, Director of Partnerships & Innovation, CNIB. “We applaud Mastercard for integrating accessibility into the design of their new debit, credit and prepaid cards and look forward to continued advances as part of the design, validation and implementation of such solutions. Accessibility benefits everyone.”
CIBC is the first Canadian issuing partner to make Touch Card available to Canadians as of May 1, 2025, through a credit card with a unique squared notch – the CIBC Adapta Mastercard.
“At CIBC, we’re helping clients realize their unique ambitions,” said Diane Ferri, Senior Vice-President, Day-to-Day Banking, CIBC. “The innovative Touch Card feature on the CIBC Adapta Mastercard supports our bank’s continued efforts to ensure our products and services are accessible to all.”
First introduced globally in 2021, Touch Card by Mastercard is the latest in Mastercard’s commitment to accessibility and inclusivity in Canada. It follows the introduction of True Name™, supporting transgender and non-binary communities, and the Sonic at POS, which provides audio confirmation of successful payment transactions at checkout counters.
Learn more about the Touch Card feature in Canada here.
*The Mastercard Pulse survey was fielded in the spring of 2025. Response data are derived from a representative sample of the Canadian population (N = 2,000) that includes an oversample of small business owners (N= 200). The margin of error for commensurate nationally representative survey responses is ± 2.2% at the 95% confidence interval.
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- Galaxy Premium Yield 2: Earn 8.00% APY through an investment note issued by Galaxy Digital LP, a subsidiary of Galaxy Digital Inc. and available exclusively to U.S. accredited investors on GalaxyOne. Yield is generated by Galaxy's institutional lending business, active since 2018. Each investment requires a $25,000 minimum and is capped at $1 million per investor with an initial $250 million total investment cap. Interest accrues daily and is paid monthly into the GalaxyOne Cash account.
- GalaxyOne Cash 3: Earn 4.00% APY in a high-yield cash deposit account FDIC insured up to $250,000. Banking services are provided by Cross River Bank, member FDIC.
- GalaxyOne Crypto: Buy, trade, hold and transfer major blue-chip digital assets, including bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), and solana (SOL). Transparent pricing, recurring purchases and real-time execution are available on the platform.
- GalaxyOne Brokerage: Access commission-free trading of more than 2,000 U.S stocks and ETFs in individual brokerage accounts. Retirement accounts (traditional and Roth IRAs) are also available. Fractional share trading is available with a $10 minimum per trade. Clients have the option to earn passive income by lending their eligible stocks through the GalaxyOne Stock Lending program4.
GalaxyOne was originally developed under the name Fierce, which Galaxy acquired in 2024. The platform is led by Zac Prince, Managing Director at Galaxy, alongside the original development team. Fierce's former CEO, Rob Cornish, will continue to support the platform's operations as Chief Technology Officer of Galaxy. GalaxyOne sits alongside GalaxyOne Institutional as part of a unified suite of products, each tailored to client needs, but both built to Galaxy's institutional standards of security, scale, and risk management.
"As technology reshapes how people invest, expectations are clear: more yield, easier access from a single platform, and opportunities that extend beyond traditional boundaries," said Mr. Prince. "GalaxyOne delivers exactly that: a unified opportunity to earn yield on cash, trade crypto, and access U.S. equities, all supported by Galaxy's financial discipline, institutional oversight, and professional team trusted by some of the world's most sophisticated institutions. We have an exciting roadmap ahead and are excited to deliver a differentiated financial experience to our clients. This is just the beginning."
To sign up and learn more about GalaxyOne, please visit: https://one.galaxy.app/sign-up
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