The Real-Time Rail Quarterly Update with Jude Pinto: 2025 Q1
Jude Pinto, Chief Delivery Officer at Payments Canada, provides a quarterly update on the Real-Time Rail (RTR) sharing the program’s progress to date and future direction over the next three months.
Since our last update in Q4 of 2024, Payments Canada and our delivery partners, CGI, IBM and Interac, have made substantial progress on the Real-Time Rail (RTR) and are now more than halfway through the technical build of the RTR. The technical build encompasses both the installation of advanced hardware in data centers, including servers, storage systems and advanced networking equipment, and the development of sophisticated software, which includes coding for the real-time clearing and settlement system.
Over the first quarter of 2025, we will continue the technical build and prepare for the next phase of work, testing. Preparing for testing includes finalizing our test strategy, selecting test tools, determining approaches and identifying test participants. We will also be increasing direct member engagement to prepare member participants for their participation in industry testing.
This past quarter we also gained significant momentum in developing an integrated fraud solution. We have successfully reached consensus with members and participants on a fraud strategy and on high-level requirements for an effective fraud mitigation system. With alignment on these fundamental elements, we have now commenced the foundational centralized fraud solution build for the RTR. We are also working concurrently with member participants, sharing technical and operational requirements and supporting them in designing their risk management processes to integrate with these new capabilities.
Payments Canada and our delivery partners continue to gain insights from other jurisdictions in how their real-time payment systems were launched, and we are taking those learnings into consideration for a 'made for Canada' approach to the RTR with a centralized fraud service. We are committed to taking a proactive approach to fraud mitigation and to delivering a safe and secure real-time payment system to Canada.
In November 2024, the Bank of Canada completed the registration of payment service providers (PSPs) under the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA), a crucial step towards implementing amendments to the Canadian Payments Act (CP Act). The updates to the CP Act, which received royal assent in June, will expand Payments Canada membership eligibility to PSPs, credit union locals and certain categories of clearing houses involved in clearing and settlement. Once the CP Act updates take effect, these entities will be eligible to apply for Payments Canada membership. Upon meeting all requirements and becoming a member, they will then be eligible to apply for participation in our systems.
Each system — our retail batch payment system, the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS); our high-value system, Lynx; and the RTR — has its own participation requirements that members need to meet to become participants. Payments Canada is a champion of this expanded eligibility, which enhances financial inclusivity by allowing a broader range of users to benefit from real-time payment processing while complying with regulatory requirements.
Payments Canada, along with our delivery partners, is dedicated to making the upcoming stages of RTR delivery as efficient and transparent as possible. I’ll be sharing quarterly video updates on the program’s progress and highlighting key upcoming milestones. Watch the most recent update above!
The RTR is a significant leap forward in Canada's payment infrastructure, promising to revolutionize how Canadians transact and manage their finances. As the program progresses, the collaborative efforts of Payments Canada, our delivery partners and the ecosystem continue to drive innovation and progress toward a more efficient and secure payment system for all Canadians.
