Eight institutions go live first, with the country’s major banks onboarding over the coming months
Canada’s Real-Time Rail (RTR) began clearing and settling payments in real time on November 9, running 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
Eight institutions are live on the system at launch, with all major Canadian financial institutions onboarding in the coming months, according to Payments Canada, the Ottawa-based public-purpose organization that owns and operates it.
The RTR moves payments through existing banking and payment channels and carries real-time cash-flow visibility and data-rich ISO 20022 messaging.
The active participants at launch are Wealthsimple, Questbank, Peoples Trust Company, Paramount Commerce, KOHO, DoBusiness.com, Digital Commerce Bank, and Bank of America.
“The launch of Canada’s Real-Time Rail marks the beginning of a new era for payments in our country,” said Susan E. Hawkins, president and CEO of Payments Canada. “As a national asset that’s designed specifically for our country, the RTR gives the payment ecosystem a modern foundation to build on.”
Payments Canada said the rollout will reach more than nine in 10 Canadians within the first year after launch, with all major Canadian financial institutions and other members applying for access onboarding continually.
The CD Howe Institute projects the system will generate up to $14.5bn in cost savings from lower processing costs, reduced use of cash and cheques, and reduced float, with a further $16bn in economic gains growing to $27bn as new functionalities are added over time.
Canada is the first G7 country to deploy a real-time payment system with mandatory centralized fraud services in use at launch, per Payments Canada.
The four required controls are confirmation of payee, available for consumer accounts on day one, a fraud transaction “safety” score, a risk list or repository of fraud risks and indicators, and a fraud reporting and intelligence platform.
Those services run alongside participants’ existing fraud controls.
“While no system is entirely immune to risk, these measures establish a strong, coordinated layer of defence across the payment network,” Payments Canada said.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem, quoted in the same statement, said the Bank “will oversee the system so that it operates safely and reliably while ensuring Canadians can benefit from innovations in financial services.”
Michael Liberty, vice president, global money operations at CIBC and chair of the Payments Canada Member Advisory Council, said the RTR “establishes a modern, made-in-Canada foundation for real-time, data-rich payments that will support innovation, efficiency and improved payment experiences.”
Mike Katchen, CEO and co-founder of Wealthsimple, said in a contributed statement published by Payments Canada that the RTR “can transform how money moves in this country, with payments that arrive in seconds instead of days.”
Payments Canada research found that 60 percent of Canadian businesses are ready to adopt real-time payments to address challenges such as forecasting cash flow and waiting to send and receive funds.
Among surveyed consumers, 52 percent expressed interest and intent to use real-time payments.
The RTR was built with delivery partners CGI, Deloitte Canada, IBM Canada, and Interac Corp.
Payments Canada’s systems, which also include the high-value system Lynx and the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS), cleared and settled $103tn in 2025, more than $411bn every business day.
