Wealthsimple Joins Canada’s Real-Time Rail as Instant Payments Go Live

Wealthsimple is among the first financial institutions live on Canada’s Real-Time Rail, Payments Canada’s new national system for clearing and settling payments in seconds, 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays.

The rail launched today with an initial wave of participants. Wealthsimple says it has the largest Canadian market share among those joining at launch. Clients will not get new cross-institution instant payment features right away. The company says it is testing the system now and plans to roll those features out in 2027.

Wealthsimple Pay, announced earlier this month at Wealthsimple Presents, already lets clients send large instant transfers to other Wealthsimple users. The Real-Time Rail is different. It is meant to move money between participating institutions on the national rail, not only inside one app.

“When Canada embraces new technology, innovation and competition follow, and consumers benefit. Canadians deserve instant, seamless, low-cost financial products to power their businesses and their lives,” said Mike Katchen, CEO and cofounder of Wealthsimple. “The Real-Time Rail can transform how money moves in this country, with payments that arrive in seconds instead of days. We’re proud to be among the first institutions to join the RTR and bring this technology to the millions of Canadians who trust us with their money.”

Payments Canada lists eight active participants at launch, including Wealthsimple, KOHO, Questbank, Peoples Trust Company, Paramount Commerce, DoBusiness.com, Digital Commerce Bank and Bank of America. More members, including the major banks, are expected to join over the coming months.

“On behalf of Payments Canada, I want to thank Wealthsimple for their role in bringing our country’s real-time payment rail to fruition,” said Donna Kinoshita, Chief Payments Officer at Payments Canada. “Participation will provide their customers with access to instant payments, robust fraud mitigation and data-rich capabilities that will unlock new payment options and use cases for Canadians and their businesses.”

Wealthsimple’s seat on the rail builds on earlier payments milestones. In 2022 it became the first non-bank, non-credit union with a Bank of Canada settlement account, giving it direct access without a bank intermediary. It was also the first securities dealer to join Interac e-Transfer and, earlier this year, the first Canadian fintech to join SWIFT, when it already flagged Real-Time Rail access as the next step for instant transfers between institutions.

The company says one in four Canadians aged 18 to 40 already uses Wealthsimple, and that it serves about 30,000 Canadian businesses. Faster settlement could help those businesses get paid without waiting days for funds to clear, once client features go live.

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