OTTAWA, Canada—The Bank of Canada (BoC) will increase supervision of payment service providers and launch a real-time payments system over the next two to three years, according to a new report.
“Critics complain the current payments system, which relies heavily on cash, debit and credit cards, is archaic compared to those of the United Kingdom and Australia,” XM.com stated in its analysis.
The XM.com report quoted Ron Morrow, executive director of payments, supervision and oversight at the Bank of Canada, as remarking during a conference that “It's no exaggeration to say that if we didn't take steps to continuously improve our payments systems, our economy would suffer.”
XM.com further reported that Morrow, while acknowledging the payments system would be cash-driven for a long time, said the BoC would start supervision of largely unregulated payments system providers (PSPs), primarily fintech companies, by September 2025.
What a PSP Does
A PSP is any company that helps people store or move their money electronically, such as PayPal PYPL.O and Square. This encompasses businesses that offer digital wallets, provide point-of-sale terminals or facilitate cross-border money transfers, XM.com explained.
The central bank is also working with Payments Canada to introduce an around-the-clock service to allow businesses and consumers to send and receive payments. This should be ready for a test phase by 2026, Morrow said.
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