Jude Pinto, Chief Delivery Officer at Payments Canada, provides an update on Canada’s forthcoming Real-Time Rail, a new piece of critical national payment infrastructure.
Demand for real-time payments (RTPs) in Canada is no longer theoretical: 60% of Canadian businesses are reportedly ready to adopt real-time capabilities to address critical cash flow friction.
Account-to-account (A2A) payments are at the centre of this shift. According to Payments Canada research, Canadian businesses cite moving money between accounts as their top use case for RTPs. In many jurisdictions, the use of A2A payments has resulted from the implementation of national RTP systems, allowing for quick, secure, and cost-effective transactions.
Launching later this year, Canada’s Real-Time Rail (RTR) will transform A2A payments across the country. By enabling instant exchange, clearing, and settlement of funds, the RTR will allow consumers and businesses to send and receive payments in real time, 24/7, year-round. The RTR will launch using the international ISO 20022 financial messaging standard and centralised fraud services from day one — a proactive approach designed to minimise fraud risk.
Canadian consumers and businesses are ready to embrace RTPs
RTPs appeal to over half of Canadians (52%), which drives demand. The RTR is ready to meet this need and deliver significant economic benefits for Canada, accelerating the circulation and settlement of funds. Advantages will be most evident in situations where immediate payment is critical. Here is where I believe RTPs will make a significant impact:
- Earned wage access: particularly relevant to contract or gig workers. Shifting payroll from fixed bi-weekly cycles to as-earned pay allows workers to immediately access and withdraw wages as soon as a shift or project ends. For gig workers, the RTR enables instant, 24/7 access to earnings upon job completion, significantly reducing reliance on delayed deposits or costly workarounds, such as payday loans. For businesses, earned wage access provides a new opportunity to attract and retain employees.
- Real estate: transactions involving property buyers, sellers, lenders, brokers, agents, and real estate lawyers face challenges, as they rely on legacy payment methods and physical bank drafts. By pairing immediate settlement certainty with data-rich messaging, the RTR can help address closing delays, minimise fraud risk, and provide a standardised, auditable data trail that automates reconciliation.
- Insurance: this sector faces significant operational and reputational friction in Canada, as it relies on legacy payment methods like cheques. For insurers, the RTR can drastically lower administrative costs, introduce data-rich payment messaging to automate reconciliation, and simultaneously boost customer retention by delivering funds instantly during high-stress situations. For consumers, the RTR can provide immediate access to essential capital when needed most, replacing multi-day processing delays with instant financial relief.
- Invoice payments: Canadian businesses and SMEs paying suppliers and vendors face operational bottlenecks due to delayed payments and manual reconciliation. With the RTR, suppliers and vendors benefit from transparent cash flow management, processing costs cheaper than wires and cheques, and, with the structured data of the ISO 20022 messaging standard, reduced back-office inefficiencies and errors.
RTPs need real-time fraud monitoring
The RTR is built on a legal framework, composed of the RTR By-law and the RTR Rules, which establishes a safe, efficient, and resilient payment system. Building on this secure foundation, Canada is setting a new global standard, being among the first countries to introduce a national RTP system with centralised fraud services from the start.
Complementing participants’ internal fraud services, the RTR’s consist of: a confirmation of payee capability, which will allow users to confirm the recipient’s account identity before sending money; a fraud transaction ‘safety’ score, assigning a real-time risk rating to every transaction to help detect, prevent, and mitigate fraudulent activity before payment authorisation; a risk list/repository of fraud risks and indicators that allow participants to identify and flag accounts previously involved in fraud proactively; and a fraud-reporting and intelligence platform facilitating data-driven oversight by consolidating fraud trends and performance metrics across the entire RTR ecosystem.
Canada’s RTR: on track for Q4 2026
Canada’s RTR is currently undergoing comprehensive testing and scheduled to launch in Q4 2026. Participants will be onboarded in deliberate phases to ensure the system’s safety and resilience. The RTR will enable continued payment innovation, thanks to a secure, regulated foundation, ultimately ensuring RTPs’ potential grows as the system evolves. Visit our website for regular updates on the RTR’s progress.
This editorial piece was first published in The Paypers' Account-to-Account Payments Report 2026, which features insights into global trends, technologies, partnerships, and the next phase of the A2A evolution. Access the full report to understand where the A2A payments ecosystem stands today and what’s next.
About the author
Jude Pinto is Payments Canada's Chief Delivery Officer, strategically leading large-scale delivery programmes to support a payment ecosystem that is resilient, inclusive, and enables fair competition as the foundation of Canada’s thriving economy. Bringing more than 30 years of experience in senior and executive-level leadership positions in the financial services sector, Jude works with business and technology experts, members, stakeholders, and regulators to lead the delivery of Canada’s Real-Time Rail (RTR).
About Payments Canada
Payments Canada enables prosperity, productivity, and safety for Canada through trusted, critical national payment infrastructure. As the owner and operator of Lynx, the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS) and the forthcoming Real-Time Rail (RTR), we also establish the by-laws, rules, and standards that govern these systems — which clear and settle more than CAD 411 billion every business day. In collaboration with our diverse membership, we continue to modernise Canada’s payment ecosystem to promote innovation, competition, and deliver efficiencies that power a modern economy.
