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Final settlement for Lynx, ACSS and the forthcoming RTR occurs through settlement accounts on the books of the Bank of Canada, providing settlement finality in central bank money. To hold a settlement account, applicants must be (or be eligible to become) a Payments Canada member, be subject to comprehensive risk-based Canadian prudential regulation (OSFI or equivalent provincial), meet an investment-grade (BBB-) credit assessment, pledge eligible collateral via CDSX, and confirm financial-crime risk controls. Membership eligibility is being expanded to RPAA-registered PSPs.
Outlook
No confirmed forward date exists for the RTR eligibility expansion, so non-bank settlement access will remain contingent on the pace of RPAA registration uptake rather than a published milestone.
Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access
Payments Canada by-law amendments are progressing to expand direct membership eligibility to RPAA-registered payment service providers — a structural change to Canada's correspondent-banking and settlement-access architecture that sits at the center of this module's analytical spine: the long-standing asymmetry between bank access to core settlement infrastructure and non-bank PSP dependence on bank intermediation. If finalized, the amendments would allow RPAA-registered non-bank PSPs a more direct relationship with Payments Canada's settlement infrastructure than the traditional model, under which non-bank PSPs have accessed the payments system only through a sponsoring bank relationship.
This development should be read alongside the continued progress of Payments Canada's Real-Time Rail (RTR) project toward its 2026 completion target, since expanded direct membership eligibility and a new real-time settlement rail are structurally complementary. The bank-versus-non-bank access asymmetry that has historically defined Canadian correspondent banking and settlement access is therefore potentially narrowing, though the by-law amendments remain in progress rather than finalized this cycle.
Outlook
Finalization of the Payments Canada by-law amendments, and their interaction with RTR's 2026 completion timeline, are the two developments most likely to determine whether Canada's correspondent-banking and settlement-access asymmetry narrows materially in the near term.
Sources and findings (4)
- T1https://www.bankofcanada.ca/core-functions/financial-system/bank-canadas-settlement-account-policies-for-payments-canada-payment-systems/retrieved
- T1https://www.bankofcanada.ca/core-functions/financial-system/bank-canadas-settlement-account-policies-for-payments-canada-payment-systems/bank-canada-settlement-account-access-policy-lynx-automated-clearing-settlement-system/retrieved
- T1https://www.bankofcanada.ca/core-functions/financial-system/bank-canadas-settlement-account-policies-for-payments-canada-payment-systems/bank-canada-settlement-account-access-policy-real-time-rail/retrieved
- T1https://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Overview-Lynx-Canadas-High-Value-Payment-System.pdfretrieved