Our membership at Payments Canada includes the Bank of Canada, domestic banks and authorized foreign banks and other deposit taking institutions. The amendments to the Canadian Payments Act in 2001 opened membership to life insurance companies, securities dealers, and money market mutual funds, among others. Payments Canada is funded by its membership, which stood at 110 at the end of 2022.
As a member, access is granted to participate in our payment systems.
Our participants are mandatory members (a duty required by the Canadian Payments Act) and non-mandatory or eligible members. Our mandatory members are all chartered banks operating in Canada and the Bank of Canada. Non-mandatory or eligible members are trust and loan companies, credit union centrals, life insurance companies, and federations of caisses populaires and other deposit-taking institutions.
Directory of participant financial institutions Become a member
We engage with our participants informally through regular consultation, and formally through operational committees and our Member Advisory Council (MAC).
Member Advisory Council
MAC is a 20-person council codified in the Canadian Payments Act that serves as a consultative and engagement forum for system participants who are also members of Payments Canada. It is broadly representative of the diversity of our system participants. Members are nominated and appointed by our Board of Directors. Each term runs for three years.
Mandate
The Council's mandate, set out in the legislation, is to provide counsel and advice to the Board on our clearing and settlement systems, the interaction of those systems with other systems involved in the exchange, clearing or settlement of payments and the development of new technologies.
Members (As of July 2024):
- ATB, Ryan Rabin - Member Advisory Council Vice Chair
- Bank of America, Leslie Konecny
- Bank of Canada, Ian Christensen
- Bank of Montreal, Gayle Ramsay
- Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Michael Liberty
- Central 1, Sue Whitney
- Citi, John Davis
- EQ Bank, Kartik Kamat
- ICICI Bank Canada, Kaushal Shah
- JPMorgan Chase, National Association, Jude Leclerc
- La Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec, Isabelle Dreyer
- Laurentian Bank of Canada, Adam Swinemar
- National Bank of Canada, Patrice Roy
- Peoples Trust Company, Jeremy Bornstein
- PNC Bank, Steve Faust
- Royal Bank of Canada, Gabriel Woo
- Scotiabank, Dougal Middleton - Member Advisory Council Chair
- TD, Christine Hunter
- Wealthsimple Investments Inc, Hanna Zaidi
- Wells Fargo, Sarah Gainey
Eligibility requirements for Council membership and the yearly nomination process are set out in our General by-law and the Administration by-law respectively.
Nominations for the Member Advisory Council
Nominations for 2025 will open early next year. If you have any questions, would like to be considered for nomination, or want to learn more about the council and the selection process, please contact councils@payments.ca.