The payment industry in Canada
Authors
Stephen Yun
Senior Research Analyst
Stephen Yun is a Senior Research Analyst at Payments Canada, whose areas of focus include the Consumer Payment Methods and Trends and Payment Behaviour Tracking studies, and leveraging research insights to create a consumer/business payment narrative and drive business action for his business partners.
Gillian Monckton
Senior Policy Analyst
Gillian Monckton is a Senior Policy Analyst at Payments Canada on the Policy and Government Relations team, leading policy files related to membership expansion, Lynx and the Real-Time Rail, in addition to supporting Payments Canada’s Government Relations function.
Peter Brown
Senior Policy Analyst
Peter Brown is a Senior Policy Analyst at Payments Canada, joining the Policy and Government Relations team early in 2025. He is leading policy files related to the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS) and observing the Prominent Payment System (PPS) designation.
This article was originally published in the October 2025 volume of the Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems (JPSS), a publication that focuses on emerging issues, trends and developments in payments. Payments Canada was requested to contribute this Canadian perspective to JPSS’s series of country-specific reports, which offer regional insights on payment strategy and systems.
Introduction
The Canadian economy relies on the safe, efficient and cost-effective movement of funds between consumers, businesses and financial institutions. Payments Canada owns and operates Canada's critical national clearing and settlement systems, which include the technology infrastructure, by-laws, rules and standards that facilitate this movement of funds in a safe, efficient and sound manner. Its systems clear and settle hundreds of billions of dollars every day between member financial institutions to ensure that the Canadian economy continues to function and thrive.
The Canadian economy is one of the most secure and robust in the world; consumers and businesses have a variety of safe payment options available to them via financial institutions and payment service providers (PSPs). However, the financial landscape in Canada is evolving with the emergence of new players and payment solutions.
Payments Canada's systems are undergoing various modernisation efforts in order to reflect this evolution. Canada is pursuing adaptive changes to ensure consumers and businesses have access to secure, modern payment options that support the country's global competitiveness.
Research shows that Canadian consumers and businesses are generally well served within the financial system. This paper provides an overview of the Canadian payment ecosystem, focusing on Payments Canada's role, key initiatives being undertaken and consumer payment trends. The paper will also discuss future trends and considerations in payments, and how these developments will support inclusion and participation in the Canadian economy.
The Canadian payment ecosystem: The role of Payments Canada
As a public purpose, non-profit organisation, Payments Canada plays a critical role in facilitating modernisation in the Canadian payment ecosystem. Created under the Canadian Payments Act (CP Act) 1980, Payments Canada owns and operates the critical payment infrastructure that supports the financial and economic well-being of all Canadians.
Unlike some international counterparts, Payments Canada operates independently from Canada's central bank, the Bank of Canada, and is legislatively mandated to:
- Establish and operate national systems for the clearing and settlement of payments and other arrangements for the making or exchange of payments.
- Facilitate the interaction of its clearing and settlement systems and related arrangements with other systems involved in the exchange, clearing or settlement of payments.
- Facilitate the development of new payment methods and technologies.
Payments Canada is driven by a public purpose mandate to ensure the efficiency, safety and soundness of its payment systems and take into account the interests of users. The following section describes this framework for membership and system participation.
Membership and system participation
The CP Act defines the types of entities that are eligible to become members of Payments Canada and participate in Payments Canada's systems. Membership is mandatory for certain entities, including the Bank of Canada and all chartered banks operating in Canada.1 Additionally, securities dealers, trust and loan companies, credit union centrals, life insurance companies, federations of caisses populaires and other deposit-taking institutions are eligible to apply to become members.
Historically, membership consisted predominantly of traditional financial institutions, such as banks and federally regulated credit unions. Following amendments to the CP Act in 2001, membership eligibility was expanded to life insurance companies, securities dealers and money market mutual funds.
In addition to benefiting from member services, including payment guides, resources and research, members of Payments Canada are eligible to apply to participate on Payments Canada's systems. These systems are used by our members to support the flow of payments that keeps Canada's economy moving.
Payments Canada owns and operates three payment systems:
- Lynx: Canada's high-value payment system (which replaced the Large Value Transfer System in 2021 after over 20 years in operation).
- The Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS): Canada's retail batch system for electronic and paper payment items.
- The Real-Time Rail (RTR): A new real-time payment system that is currently under development.
Lynx is an electronic wire system that facilitates the irrevocable transfer of payments in Canadian dollars between participating financial institutions.2 In addition to providing a means for settling obligations between participants, Lynx also supports the implementation of the Bank of Canada's monetary policy by managing the amount of liquidity in the financial system.
The ACSS primarily clears and settles retail payments representing most of the day-today commerce in Canada, including cheques, pre-authorised debits, direct deposits, bill payments and automated banking machine (ABM) transactions. Payments Canada is currently working with the Bank of Canada, the Department of Finance, members and stakeholders to modernise the ACSS.
Given the critical role these systems play in the Canadian economy, both systems are overseen by the Bank of Canada.3 Under the Payment Clearing and Settlement Act (PCSA) 1996, the Bank of Canada is responsible for designating and overseeing financial market infrastructures, and ensuring these systems are adequately controlling systemic and/ or payment risk. Lynx is designated as systemically important, while the ACSS is designated as a prominent payment system (PPS).4 When the RTR is operational, it will also fall under the oversight of the Bank of Canada as a PPS.
Payments Canada is responsible for ensuring that its systems adhere to the risk management standards developed by the Bank of Canada. These standards fully incorporate the Principles of Financial Market Infrastructures in order to ensure the mitigation of systemic or payment system risk.