Payments Canada, the organisation that owns and runs the country’s core payment systems, has switched on the Real-Time Rail (RTR), a national system that lets businesses and consumers move and settle money instantly at any hour of the year.

Through the new rail, participating members, including banks, credit unions and payment service providers, can exchange, clear and settle transactions for their customers in real time around the clock. Users get immediate settlement, live visibility over cash flow and richer payment data, all through the banking and payment channels they already use.

The economic case is substantial. According to projections from the C.D. Howe Institute, the functions available at launch could cut costs by as much as $14.5bn over the next decade by lowering processing expenses, reducing reliance on cash and cheques, and shrinking float, the window in which money sent has not yet reached the recipient. Beyond these savings, the RTR is forecast to deliver $16bn in economic gains, a figure expected to climb to $27bn as additional features are added.

Security has been built in from the outset. Canada is the first G7 nation to roll out a real-time payment system that requires centralised fraud services from launch.

These tools will operate alongside the existing controls of each participant and include confirmation of payee for consumer accounts from the first day, a safety score for each transaction, a shared repository of fraud risks and indicators, and a platform for reporting and sharing fraud intelligence. Payments Canada acknowledged that no system can eliminate risk completely, but said the measures create a coordinated defensive layer across the network.

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