Canadian public weighs in on Payments Canada’s Modernization Roadmap & High-Level Plan

Payments Canada is mapping its multi-year journey towards a modernized payments system that will enable significant improvements to the overall payments system through innovation, as well as convenient, safe and efficient payment options for Canadians.  Its public socialization of the Industry Roadmap and High-Level Plan for Modernization came to a close on January 20, 2017 and raised important considerations for the requirements and design phase of the program.

The Roadmap, developed in consultation with financial institution participants and other key stakeholders, outlines the ways in which the payments industry will begin to deliver on the needs identified in the Vision for the Canadian Payments Ecosystem.  Payments Canada issued the Roadmap for public socialization in December to give Canadians the opportunity to weigh in and feedback on the plans.

The public socialization validated the general direction for Modernization while, at the same time, raising important considerations such as:

• Suggestions for making Payments Canada rules more user-friendly.
• Feedback around changes for small businesses, including speeding up returned items and more consistent regulation of payments service providers.
• Requests for immediate processing of “on-us” transactions, greater ability to validate accounts to reduce returned debits and credits, and increased frequency for processing transactions submitted by file transmission.
• A request for more sophisticated means by which irrevocable funds in real estate transaction can be moved in Canada’s core payments system.
• A call for greater stakeholder insight into key decisions within the Modernization process overall.

This is just a sample of the constructive and thoughtful feedback received as part of the socialization process. We look forward to discussing and analyzing these insights and more as we shape the detailed planning of the program moving forward.  

Next on the Modernization journey

Payments Canada is currently working with financial institution participants and stakeholders in a series of working groups to build requirements and establish detailed designs for Canada’s future payments system.

For more information on Modernization at Payments Canada, visit payments.ca/modernization or write to info@payments.ca.