Consultation reconfirms strong ecosystem support for expanded membership eligibility
Feedback will inform by-law and rule amendments to align with changes to the Canadian Payments Act.
On February 4, 2025, Payments Canada launched a public consultation on policy proposals related to amendments to the Canadian Payments Act that will allow more types of organizations to become members of Payments Canada. The policy proposals incorporate significant pre-consultation engagement with members, stakeholders, regulators and new membership categories (credit union locals, payment service providers and clearing houses).
The consultation responses will inform consequential by-law and rule amendments in preparation for new entitled members and system participants. The period to respond closed on March 6, 2025.
The public consultation was well received, with submissions provided by Payments Canada’s members, prospective members, stakeholder groups, payment service providers, associations and consumer representatives.
Consultation feedback confirmed strong support for the policy proposals to enable membership expansion and system participation for new entitled members. Many submissions spoke to the importance of membership expansion in enabling competition, innovation and better payment products and services for Canadians.
Key themes identified in the consultation responses included:
- Agreement that payment service providers (PSPs) captured under the Retail Payments Activities Act (RPAA) provide evidence of their registration in their application for Payments Canada membership.
- Strong support for amendments to ensure that non-member PSPs remain eligible for the Stakeholder Advisory Council (SAC), highlighting the importance of the SAC as a means for ecosystem engagement and contribution to the achievement of Payments Canada’s objectives.
- Unanimous support for no entity-based restrictions for new entitled member categories as a means to enable fair and risk-based access to its systems. Members of Payments Canada that meet the participation requirements for a given system should be eligible to participate.
- Recognition and support for redefining affiliation within the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS) participation requirements, with several credit union respondents highlighting the importance of recognizing their relationships.
- Encouragement for Payments Canada to introduce an expedited process for the investigation of straightforward or uncontested alleged contraventions of requirements contained in Payments Canada’s by-laws and rules as a method of enhancing efficiency.
- Strong support for increasing the maximum penalty amount from $250,000 to $1,000,000 as a means to promote compliance with requirements in the by-laws and rules and to reflect inflation.
A few of the responses highlighted areas for clarification in the consultation paper, including the following:
- A small number of respondents highlighted that measures should be taken to ensure that certain entity groups are not overly represented at both the SAC and the Member Advisory Council (MAC). Based on provisions in the Canadian Payments Act and By-law No. 1, PaymentsCanada will continue to ensure that the SAC remains representative of users and payment service providers, whilst the MAC remains representative of the diversity of membership.
- Payments Canada clarified in its consultation that it is not proposing to remove the existing entity-based restriction in By-law No.3. While not a proposal, as the amendment is not consequential to membership expansion, it is important to highlight existing entity-based restrictions. These institutional restrictions were put in place in light of the ACSS financial risk framework. The majority of respondents showed support.
- A small number of respondents suggested future consideration or removal of these restrictions, as the risk of participation of these entities is sufficiently mitigated by the settlement account policy in place by the Bank of Canada. Payments Canada has noted these comments and will place due consideration on the presence of these restrictions as part of the modernization of the ACSS. Payments Canada supports that participation requirements for all of its systems, including the ACSS, should be risk-based and should not unduly limit participation.
Payments Canada would like to thank all of those who submitted a response to the public consultation. The feedback is invaluable in helping Payments Canada in preparing and accommodating new members and system participants, whilst ensuring that access remains fair and risk-based. As the amendment process progresses, Payments Canada will continue to work with the ecosystem and its regulators to address consultation feedback.
If you have any questions or comments relating to the consultation process, please contact consultation@payments.ca.
Lisa Sattler, Director, Policy at Payments Canada, is a speaker at The 2025 Payments Canada SUMMIT. Her Idea Exchange session, Strengthening Canada through modern payment legislation, is on Tuesday May 06, 12:40 p.m..
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