Innovation and the Real-Time Rail
The Real-Time Rail will reflect Payments Canada's commitment to provide a safe and secure foundation for participants to innovate upon, including a centralized fraud utility service.
Participants on the Real-Time Rail will be able to connect and develop new ways for consumers, businesses and governments to pay for goods and services, transfer money and better compete nationally and internationally.
Intended as a platform for innovation, the Real-Time Rail is being built in anticipation of competitive services: market-facing payment products or services that leverage the real-time payment functionality of the Real-Time Rail.
The Real-Time Rail sandbox for Application Programming Interface (API)
Payments Canada’s Real-Time Rail API sandbox allows developers to explore and create against API functionality user test data. These APIs will help businesses prepare for the launch of the Real-Time Rail.
The Real-Time Rail API sandbox is open to any developer, business or individual. There is no fee to use the developer portal. Register for the developer portal to access the sandbox and receive notifications when new APIs are added.
Payments Canada and the Real-Time Rail Explained
An overview of the system’s functional requirements, approach to risk mitigation and key system components, including the real-time exchange, real-time settlement and third-party exchange.
The benefits of using the APIs in a sandbox environment
- Exploration and experimentation: A safe, secure environment to test Real-Time Rail APIs
- System visualization: Understand the Real-Time Rail and its capabilities prior to go-live
- Simplified onboarding: Ease of integration with the Real-Time Rail at go-live
- Business opportunities: The Real-Time Rail APIs will create opportunities for users to build their own use cases for the Real-Time Rail
- Innovation: Real-Time Rail use cases will lead to early API and product development
- Single and public source of truth: An open testing environment means developers have access to the documentation and information they need to innovate and collaborate
Leveraging the ISO 20022 messaging standard
The Real-Time Rail will use the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard for all transactions. Payments Canada leveraged the best practices of other jurisdictions, and worked collaboratively with the industry to develop the Real-Time Rail-specific ISO 20022 message specifications. These specifications will allow Real-Time Rail participants to prepare their existing applications to leverage the value of the ISO 20022 messaging standard at Real-Time Rail go-live.
Vendors that support Canada’s payments ecosystem can use the published message specifications to update their applications and develop new services for Real-Time Rail participants and the wider ecosystem. ISO 20022 messaging will allow for access to enhanced remittance data, support for global interoperability, and improved transparency in payment details.