Payments Canada hosts webinar on the Real-Time Rail’s access and participation options

On May 29, Payments Canada held the second session in a series of educational webinars to support broad public engagement on the legal framework for the Real-Time Rail (RTR), Canada’s forthcoming real-time payment system.

The webinars are designed to inform responses to a public consultation, happening May 20, 2025 until July 2, 2025. Responses to the consultation will inform the legal framework critical to ensuring the RTR’s safety, efficiency and resiliency.

Following a successful first webinar, hundreds attended the second session, where Lisa Sattler, Director of Policy, outlined the regulatory and system requirements for RTR access and participation.

The webinar discussed Payments Canada membership and the recent expansion of membership eligibility under the Canadian Payments Act. Membership is required to access all Payments Canada systems, including the RTR, each of which has specific financial, technical, legal, and business participation requirements.

Organizations can participate on the RTR as a direct settlement participant, a settlement agent, an indirect settlement participant or a member non-participant. All Payments Canada members are eligible to participate in one of these ways provided they can meet all technical, operational and other requirements related to being an RTR participant.

This series of educational webinars will continue over the next two weeks, with a new session each Thursday. Upcoming topics include: RTR recourse and compliance and RTR fraud management.

The webinars are publicly available in both official languages. Each webinar will be followed by a bilingual Q and A session. Questions can be submitted live during the webinar or in advance to consultation@payments.ca.

Recordings of the webinars are publicly available in both official languages on both the Education page and on Payments Canada’s YouTube channel.