The active participants at launch are Wealthsimple, Questbank, Peoples Trust Company, Paramount Commerce, KOHO, DoBusiness.com, Digital Commerce Bank, and Bank of America.
“The launch of Canada’s Real-Time Rail marks the beginning of a new era for payments in our country,” said Susan E. Hawkins, president and CEO of Payments Canada. “As a national asset that’s designed specifically for our country, the RTR gives the payment ecosystem a modern foundation to build on.”
Payments Canada said the rollout will reach more than nine in 10 Canadians within the first year after launch, with all major Canadian financial institutions and other members applying for access onboarding continually.
The CD Howe Institute projects the system will generate up to $14.5bn in cost savings from lower processing costs, reduced use of cash and cheques, and reduced float, with a further $16bn in economic gains growing to $27bn as new functionalities are added over time.
Canada is the first G7 country to deploy a real-time payment system with mandatory centralized fraud services in use at launch, per Payments Canada.