Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
The Growing Role of Digital Payments in Canadian Regulated Sectors
Jun 24, 2026
Canada's payment infrastructure is undergoing a structural transformation. Open banking frameworks, real-time rails, and expanded regulatory access are no longer confined to traditional retail banking. Increasingly, the architecture being built is explicitly designed to accommodate a wider set of licensed industries, from wealth management and insurance to securities trading and regulated digital platforms.
What's driving this is not just policy ambition. Consumer behaviour has already shifted dramatically. Canadian consumers and businesses conducted approximately 22.5 billion payment transactions worth $12.2 trillion in 2024, with digital payments accounting for 86% of transaction volume. That baseline demand, concentrated in electronic channels, is creating the conditions for regulated sectors beyond retail to modernize how they move money.
Open Banking Reaches Beyond Traditional Retail Finance
Canada's consumer-driven banking framework, formalized through the Consumer-Driven Banking Act (CDBA) passed via Bill C-15 in March 2026, establishes an API-based data-sharing regime with accreditation requirements for participants. Critically, the framework is designed to extend beyond major banks to registered payment service providers (PSPs), credit unions, and other regulated entities. This is not incidental. It reflects a deliberate policy choice to let licensed operators in non-traditional sectors access compliant financial data infrastructure.
The practical implication is significant for fintech operators and investors watching vertical markets. A PSP serving a regulated digital platform can, once accredited under the CDBA, access read-level financial data for affordability assessments and KYC verification. If Phase 2 write access proceeds according to current implementation targets, accredited participants could gain payment initiation capabilities beginning as early as mid-2027. This could allow them to initiate payments directly from consumer accounts over regulated rails, replacing reliance on card schemes or manual EFT processes. This vertical integration of data and payment initiation represents a substantial operational upgrade for any licensed sector managing high-frequency transactions.
Real-Time Rails Enter Licensed Digital Platforms
Canada's Real-Time Rail (RTR), developed by Payments Canada, is a 24/7/365 instant payment system built on ISO 20022 standards. It supports irrevocable credit transfers settling within seconds and includes centralized fraud services and comprehensive auditability. These features make it particularly relevant to regulated sectors where traceability and risk controls are non-negotiable. System-level testing began in 2025, with industry-facing testing underway in early 2026 and a full launch targeted later this year.
Regulated online gaming offers an instructive early example of where this is heading. Ride-hailing apps have integrated real-time bank payouts for drivers, freelance marketplaces have replaced cheque cycles with instant wallet transfers, and subscription e-learning platforms process refunds automatically without manual intervention. Platforms categorized among the best Canadian casino sites online have followed the same path, adopting Interac e-Transfer as a core deposit and withdrawal method. Interac e-Transfer has become a common deposit and withdrawal method because it enables fast bank-linked transfers through Canadian financial institutions and operates within established authentication and security controls. In regulated sectors, these payment flows are typically combined with operator-led identity verification and compliance processes.
According to industry payment trends data, online transfers including Interac e-Transfer and PayPal rose 16% year-over-year in volume in 2024, with total value up 23%, reaching 1.4 billion Interac e-Transfer transactions. That trajectory illustrates the broader demand pull: regulated sectors are actively gravitating toward account-to-account rails ahead of RTR even being live, and the RTR rollout will accelerate that shift substantially.
Regulatory Alignment Challenges Across Fintech Verticals
The Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA) functions as the regulatory on-ramp that makes this broader access possible. PSPs must register with the Bank of Canada, meeting requirements around fund safeguarding, operational risk management, and incident reporting. This supervisory layer establishes a regulatory framework for non-bank payment providers and may support broader participation in Canada's evolving payments ecosystem, subject to applicable access, operational, and infrastructure requirements.
The challenge is that regulatory alignment across verticals is still uneven. Provincial-level licensing regimes for sectors like gaming or insurance don't automatically map to federal PSP registration requirements. Operators building payment stacks for multiple regulated industries must navigate overlapping compliance obligations at both levels. According to DLA Piper's analysis of the new CDBA, the framework requires a public registry maintained by the Bank of Canada, with technical and security standards that participating entities must meet consistently. This adds another compliance layer that cross-vertical fintech operators need to plan for carefully.
What Canadian Payment Infrastructure Must Solve Next
The most pressing gap is coordination between the CDBA's phased rollout and RTR's launch timeline. Phase 1 read access under consumer-driven banking is launching in 2026, but the write access phase, where payment initiation over RTR becomes possible for accredited third parties, is targeted for mid-2027. Regulated sectors building digital payment journeys today are essentially planning for infrastructure that won't be fully available for another twelve to eighteen months, creating execution risk for operators and investors who have already made platform commitments.
See: Bank Of Canada Refreshes Payment Oversight Hub
Interoperability across provincial regulatory perimeters also remains unresolved. Canada's payment modernization story is largely a federal one. RTR, RPAA, and CDBA are federal instruments, but many of the regulated industries most likely to benefit operate under provincial licensing. Bridging that jurisdictional gap requires deliberate coordination, and current frameworks don't fully address it. According to Payments Canada's market data, online transfers and account-to-account methods are now the fastest-growing payment category in Canada, reinforcing that market demand will outpace regulatory readiness unless that coordination accelerates. For Canadian fintech founders and policymakers, closing that gap is the defining infrastructure challenge of the next two years.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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