Rules & documentation

Rule amendments support expanded membership and access to critical national infrastructure

These changes took effect on February 9, 2026.

A series of amendments to the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS) rules are now in effect. These changes, which became effective on February 9, 2026, are designed to align with recent legislative updates to the Canadian Payments Act (CP Act) and refine and enhance operations and processing procedures.

Payments Canada’s rules, standards and procedure documents are updated regularly and versions posted online are in force. You can contact Payments Canada for confirmation by e-mail at info@payments.ca.

Rules updates & process

The payments that Canadians send and receive on a daily basis to pay bills, salaries, purchase goods and services, lend or borrow money underpin the economy with the direction from rules and standards. Through the development of these rules and standards we ensure and promote consistency, standardization, safety and soundness in how payments are processed.

By-laws, rules, standards and procedure documents are developed for our payment systems including the clearing and settlement of retail batch payments, also known as the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS) and associated US Dollar Bulk Exchange and high-value payments, also known as Lynx.

Rules process (how rules are made or changed)

Payments Canada’s rules and standards are developed in consultation with members and stakeholders where necessary*. Rule changes can be divided into three types:

Administrative changes include editorial changes, changes to contact information, schedules, dates and statistics that may exist in appendices of the rule(s) or the appendices.
Operational or Technical changes impact members only and typically relate to changes in operational process or procedure such as a rule/definition clarification or technical upgrades. This type of rule represents the majority of rule change initiatives conducted.
New Policy or Process changes are those changes that have significant impact to members or end-users such as large corporations, vendors or consumers. These changes are often related to the implementation of a new policy, system or process. Stakeholder Advisory Council (SAC) involvement and public consultation may be sought for these types of changes. Examples of these types of changes include credit risk changes, review of a pre-authorized debit (PAD), corporate credit card identification number database (CCIN) or Point-of-Sale (POS) related rule.

*Where necessary refers to when major policy changes will impact end-users and or the Canadian economy. At which time, consultation is necessary amongst members and stakeholders.

Once a rule change type has been identified, the following rules process is followed all the way through to the final rule change or new rule development.

How are rules enforced?

Payments Canada’s rules apply to all members participating in the systems.

Monitoring is performed by Payments Canada to ensure that members comply with the requirements (e.g., review of operational incidents, member attestations, member inquiries, etc.). All matters relating to compliance are reviewed by the Compliance team and, where applicable, will be addressed in accordance with the procedures outlined in By-law No. 6 – Compliance.

Upcoming Changes to Rules, Procedures and Standards

By-laws, Rules or Standards in review	Description of change	Target Board meeting date	Target rule effective date	Status
Standard 007	Update to the AFT transaction code 309 in Standard 007 to reflect the new benefit name, Canada Essential Benefit Credit.	May 28, 2026	July 3, 2026	Board approval
Rule 10	Adding email as an acceptable communication method for inquiries regarding the return of a Lynx payment message over $25 million.	May 28, 2026	July 27, 2026	Board approval
Rule A4	Removal of exception note under section 6 as it is no longer relevant in the Rule.	May 28, 2026	July 27, 2026	Board approval
Rules A1 and H1	Update to indicate that as at December 1, 2028, paper PADs will no longer be eligible for exchange, clearing and settlement in the ACSS.	May 28, 2026	July 27, 2026	Board approval
Rule F1 and F4	Update to include the requireent to notify when stopping and reissuing Notice of Change.	May 28, 2026	July 27, 2026	Board approval
Introduction to ACSS Rules and Rule F8	Update to definition of member to reflect recent changes made to the Canadian Payments Act.	May 28, 2026	July 27, 2026	Board approval
Rule H6	Administrative changes to the settlement timeframe.	May 28, 2026	July 27, 2026	Board approval
Rule D4	Updates to accommodate changes in membership, clearing arrangements and mergers.	May 28, 2026	July 27, 2026	Board approval
Rule H6	Additional clarity provided to the bill payment framework.	May 28, 2026	December 1, 2026	Board approval
A1, A4, A6, A10, B2, B9, B10, E3, F1, F4, G4, H3, H6, Standard 006 and Introduction	Amendments to accommodate the review of the CCIN Bill Payments Framework.	February 27, 2025	December 1, 2026	Finance non-disallowance
Rule A4 and Rule B10	Amendments to clarify that a Return Item Slip may only be used to redirect an Item.	December 11, 2025	February 9, 2026	Published
Rule A4, Rule A10, Rule B10 and Rule G3	Amendments to clarify the use of the return reason Item Incorrectly Amount-encoded.	December 11, 2025	February 9, 2026	Published
Rule A1, Rule B2 and Rule K1	Removal of ACSS Stream “Z”.	December 11, 2025	February 9, 2026	Published
Rule K1 and Rule A4	Removal of Appendix II - Point of Entry Offices.	December 11, 2025	February 9, 2026	Published
Rule D1	Affiliate Restriction Updates due to CP Act changes.	December 11, 2025	February 9, 2026	Published
Rule L1	Update to Interest Rate on Default Contributions.	December 11, 2025	February 9, 2026	Published
Introduction and Rule K1	Administrative changes to the K Rules.	December 11, 2025	February 9, 2026	Published

Changes to Rules, Procedures and Standards

2025 2024 2023 2022

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