RBC and BMO agreed on August 10, 2026 to sell Moneris to Francisco Partners, a US private equity firm, for C$2 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2027, with payments industry veteran Jeff Sloan taking the role of chairman.
Moneris is one of Canada's largest payment processors and has been jointly owned by the two banks since 2000. A substantial share of Canadian restaurants process through it, often on terminals supplied alongside a POS system from another vendor.
What it means for merchants
Ownership changes at a processor do not automatically change merchant pricing, and nothing announced to date indicates a rate change for existing merchants. Anyone telling you your rates are about to rise is speculating.
What typically does follow a transaction of this size is a period of review: of pricing, of the product roadmap, and of the support structure, over the following twelve to eighteen months. That's not a prediction about Moneris specifically. It's what happens after most acquisitions of this scale.
The useful response isn't to panic or to switch. It's to establish your baseline now, while nothing has changed, so that you'd notice if it did.
What we'd suggest doing
Pull a recent statement and work out your effective rate: total fees paid, divided by card volume, calculated separately for credit and for Interac debit. The two behave completely differently. Credit is charged as a percentage, Interac is usually a small flat fee per transaction, and blending them hides where your money actually goes.
You have a right to that breakdown. Under the Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry in Canada, your monthly statement must show the effective merchant discount rate for each card type from each network, along with interchange rates and the number and volume of transactions by type. You're also entitled to advance notice of new fees or rate increases.
Knowing your number before anything changes is worth considerably more than reacting after it does.
If you'd like a hand with the arithmetic, that's what our free statement audit is. We read one statement and tell you what you're actually paying. There's no obligation attached, and if you're already in a good deal we'll say so.
Know your number before anything changes.
Send us one recent processing statement and we'll return your true effective rate, broken out for credit and debit, within one business day. No cost, no obligation. If you're already in a good deal, we'll tell you that too.
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