Rules & documentation

By-laws, rules, standards and procedure documents are integral parts of the legal framework of the national payment systems that Payments Canada is legislated to establish and operate. They lay out the roles, responsibilities and obligations of our member financial institutions on the appropriate handling of payment items exchanged, cleared and settled via our payment systems. This includes requirements for participation in a payment system or scheme, procedures for the processing of payment items, and the requirements and timeframes for returning payment items, where eligible.

Payments Canada’s rules, standards and procedure documents are updated regularly and versions posted online are in force. You can contact Payments Canada for confirmation by e-mail at info@payments.ca.

Item Title Updated System
Best practice
Uniform treatment of wire payments
High-value payment system - Lynx
Rule 11
Testing and certification
High-value payment system - Lynx
Rule 13
Suspension, revocation and reinstatement
High-value payment system - Lynx
Rule 7
Settlement queues and conditional release mechanism
High-value payment system - Lynx
PRD-001
Settlement exchange transaction (SET)
High-value payment system - Lynx
Rule 16
Remittance information
High-value payment system - Lynx
PRD-002
Procedures for foreign currency transfers within Canada
High-value payment system - Lynx
PRD-003
Procedures for claims and compensation for US dollar and foreign currency transfers within Canada
High-value payment system - Lynx
Rule 5
Point of contact
High-value payment system - Lynx
Rule 6
Payment transmission
High-value payment system - Lynx
Guideline
Misdirected Lynx payments
High-value payment system - Lynx
Rule 8
Management of settlement mechanisms
High-value payment system - Lynx