Electronic payments in Canada has seen an immense growth in the last few years and with the onset of Covid, Canadians are more and more moving towards the digital payments as that provides options for contactless and online/mobile banking. There is a growing trend towards these forms of payment even after post-Covid for the convenience and secure payment options available with digital payements.

The new way forward for Canada payments

Payments in Canada will be going through a modernization initiative in the next 2 years. Lynx will go live in 2021 and Real Time Rail (RTR) in will go live in 2022.

Lynx will be Canada's new high-value payments system (RTGS real-time gross settlement) which will enable the global ISO 20022 messaging standard in line with global move towards it and also comply with the risk management standards for Systemically Important Payments Systems as per Bank of Canada's standards. Lynx will have the flexibility to integrate with future technologies like APIs integrations. Lynx will be replacing or modernizing the existing LVTS system. With ISO 20022 migrations getting a bit delayed in Europe and US, Canada will be one of the first major economies to go live with it and can help in providing the much needed confidence in the migration towards it.

RTR will be Canada's new real-time payments system which will provide 24x7x365 payments and will also have ISO 20022 messaging to support data-rich payments. RTR will give Canadians faster mechanism to cash and cheque payments options by delivering funds in less than 60 seconds. RTR will also give a platform for new Fintech entrants to provide innovative solutions in bill payments and P2P payments and will also support the growing gig economy in Canada with instant payments to gig workers. RTR will also feature Request to Pay (RtP) which allows any individual or business wishing to receive a payment, to send an electronic payment request to the debtor. RtP will provide more flexibility to payers, increased customer loyalty for biller with reduced costs.

The Benefits

The new payments systems in Canada with a modern payments infrastructure will create new opportunities for Canadians in everyday payment transactions and provide faster, efficient, convenient and secure payments experience for all to benefit from. Something to look forward to in 2021, Go Canada.