Visa Canada Appoints Dan Iwachiw as Head of Products

Visa Canada announced in an email Thursday (Aug. 31) to PYMNTS that Dan Iwachiw is now the vice president and head of Canada Products.

An industry veteran with 20+ years in the financial services sector, Iwachiw will oversee the growth, adoption and evolution of Visa Canada products and solutions spanning consumer products, digital, risk, installments and loyalty.

Based in Toronto, Iwachiw will report directly to Stacey Madge, president and country manager of Visa Canada, as well as Dan Sanford, head of regional product solutions for North America.

Throughout his 11-year tenure with Visa, Iwachiw has held various roles across consulting and analytics, strategy and operations, business development and financial partnerships. He also serves as executive chair for the Visa Canada Employee Engagement Committee. Before Visa, Iwachiw spent 11 years at American Express Canada.

His appointment comes as Visa and other card companies are upping their rewards and loyalty programs for cardholders.

Among the companies vying to be top of wallet are Chase and Amazon, which jointly introduced new rewards and cash-back perks for Amazon Visa cardholders. They launched May 1 with new names and card designs — “Prime Visa” and “Amazon Visa.”

“Prime Visa and Amazon Visa cardmembers can now earn 5% back and 3% back, respectively, on purchases made through Chase Travel, Chase’s new and enhanced travel booking platform,” Amazon said in a news release provided to PYMNTS.

Payment facilitators are also looking for ways to expand their reach.

For example, Bill Dobbins, senior vice president and head of acquiring at Visa, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that there’s an opportunity to change how payments are made in economies where payment acceptance and payment facilitators don’t already have a foothold. He called these economies “blue oceans.” These new markets have arisen over the last few years as connected ecosystems have linked daily activities and opened avenues for companies to embed payments.

Of those markets, Dobbins said, “These are segments with trillions of dollars of spending. I think about rent and loan payments and healthcare home services as verticals where there are still opportunities for PayFacs to drive change, add value and secure a large share of the total payments pie.”