Payments Canada launches long-delayed instant payments system

Payments Canada says it has launched its real-time rail national payment system, which is expected to speed day-to-day payments for Canadian businesses and consumers.

It says the new system is expected to enable participating members to exchange, clear and settle payments securely in real time.

“The launch of Canada’s real-time rail marks the beginning of a new era for payments in our country,” Payments Canada CEO Susan Hawkins said in a news release Monday.

“As a national asset that’s designed specifically for our country, the (real-time rail) gives the payment ecosystem a modern foundation to build on.”

The system is expected to generate savings from lower processing costs, reduced use of cash and cheques and a shorter period during which funds are temporarily unavailable to the recipient.

The initial participants include Wealthsimple, Questbank, Peoples Trust Co., Paramount Commerce, Koho, DoBusiness.com, Digital Commerce Bank and Bank of America. Additional participants are expected to be added in the coming months, including all of the major Canadian financial institutions.

Transactions that pass through Payments Canada systems include debit card payments, pre-authorized debits, direct deposits, bill payments, wire payments and cheques.

Henry Kim, a professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, said the announcement is a step in the right direction.

“There’s a thread that we have to do this for our sovereignty, and we just have to keep up with the rest of the world. A lot of the world has real-time settlement,” he said in an interview, adding it already exists in the U.S.

Payments Canada has been years behind schedule on getting the system in place, which allows near-instant payments clearing 24 hours a day, along with other improvements. The organization originally aimed to have the system in place by 2019.

The ability to more rapidly clear payments is particularly helpful for businesses, Kim said.

“It also means that if you’re tight for cash, if you’re a business and your working capital runs low, you can get paid much faster by other businesses,” he said.

Payments Canada said the real-time rail system will also come with mandatory centralized fraud services and controls, including confirmation of payee, a fraud transaction safety score, a list of fraud risks, and a platform for fraud reporting.

Kim, who works with U.S. credit unions on payment technology, said there are some concerns among U.S. financial institutions about fraud-related risks from real-time payments, with some U.S. banks electing not to provide the feature to customers.

“Because when you get rid of that lag, there’s less time for verification so someone could actually make a fraudulent transaction. And with the real-time rail, oftentimes you don’t get that back,” he said.

“Canada’s actually done something different from the U.S., and I think it’s actually really good to have that centralized.”

Claire Célérier, Canada Research Chair in household finance and an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, said that even though Canada is playing catch-up to other countries, there are advantages to not being the first mover.

“When you develop such an infrastructure, reliability is absolutely crucial. There are strong concerns regarding fraud and I think what Canada has been able to develop is potentially an infrastructure that is more robust to fraud,” she said.

The question now, she said, is what fees retail banking customers may face for faster transfers.

“It should decrease the fees of payment transfer by a lot, but I hope it will be the case and that it will be monitored to make sure that everyone can benefit from this instant payment at a low cost,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2026.

Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press