The fact that they can write that entire article without including the word “Interac” once is mind-boggling to me. What is the difference? Is this the same organization? A successor? A competitor? A takeover? Is this a government department? A for-profit business? An industry group? WTF is going on here and how does it related to the already established and perfectly functional Interac payments system that pretty much everyone living in Canada is already familiar with and has been using for decades?
I tried searching for answers and I found this https://www.payments.ca/payments-canada-selects-interac-corp-exchange-solution-provider-canadas-new-real-time-payments and now I’m even more confused. Is this just “new more betterer Interac” or what?
This is Real Time Rail (RTR). It is not related to Interac. It is a new banking clearing system to be offered in addition to existing systems. It is through Payments Canada - a statutory corporation created by parliament. Its the same people that operate the existing clearing systems (lynx and RCSS). RTR has two main benefits - it is instant, and guaranteed funds. Interac goes through different settlement procedures and from the back end. I would say it is better than a wire transfer because a wire transfer, while guaranteed funds, is not instant (at least between sender and recipient accounts) - often more than 24 hours. It also plays well with the EU’s banking system, since they have had RTR for a while now.
As a layperson outside the financial world none of that sounds like anything I’m at all familiar with or probably ever will be, but I’ll take your word for it and it sounds good I guess. I suppose I’ll indeed be able to consider it as “new more betterer Interac”, and I’ll leave it for the banks to deal with the details of whatever this is and get back to the modest financial means of my life.
I’m pretty sure you’ll have access to it in time. It could just be a new option in your online banking for example, when the banks roll it out. Thinking of it as a new, better, Interac is probably a good way to think about it. It will have higher limits, and some fraud prevention measures included in it. Also, Interac is a for-profit company.
That’s the spirit super interac 2
Instant payments are transfers between bank accounts - the type that traditionally take several business days.
Maybe they’re moving towards Interac being a credit card replacement as well, to bypass the US monopoly on credit card transactions… Likely not though.
Also, does this mean refunds will be done instantly, or does it still take “7 Business days” so they can collect interest on your money in that time period.
