Payments Canada has revealed that the technical build of Real-Time Rail (RTR) has reached 60% completion “on all fronts” and is on target to be finished in the third quarter of 2025, as planned.
In a quarterly update on RTR, Jude Pinto, chief delivery officer at Payments Canada, outlined that the technical build phase includes the build of real-time clearing and settlement application, as well as the re-platforming of the real-time exchange to be on a common infrastructure with the clearing and settlement system.
It includes technical preparations for the conversion to the real-time clearing and settlement system, and the fraud foundational build.
With the centralized fraud services build also at 60% completion, Payments Canada’s Pinto confirmed that these new protections for the ecosystem will work “in tandem” with member participants’ existing fraud controls and will “make them stronger”.
New national RTR fraud services include a fraud transaction score, a fraud reporting and intelligence platform to keep track of losses and manage participants with outlier fraud results, a risk list for accounts with prior fraud reports and a national Confirmation of Payee capability.
The technical build phase will be followed by the testing phase.
Pinto said: “We’re about to enter a comprehensive phase of internal technical testing, which follows the technical build phase – this is on track to complete in Q3 of 2025.
“Testing includes what the industry and Payments Canada require in terms of system integration, security, operational readiness, user acceptance and performance testing of the foundational fraud utility.”
In its quarterly update, Payments Canada revealed that the team is conducting an industry impact assessment “in parallel” with testing, to understand the technical and operational changes for each member participant and the onboarding and readiness activities needed for new member participants, with joint workshops being conducted with the industry.
The results of impact assessments, participant readiness and testing results will also feed into Payments Canada’s deployment strategy.
Since its last update at the end of January this year, Payments Canada reported having made “significant progress” in collaboration with regulators and the industry on a framework outlining how participants can connect to and use the RTR.
The new framework gives member participants the option to connect directly to the RTR exchange, connect through a connection service provider or leverage a third party exchange.
In terms of settlement, member participants will be able to either use their own Bank of Canada settlement account and participate as direct clearers, or choose to clear and settle indirectly via a settlement agent.
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