Canada's payments momentum, and what comes next

Two trips to Canada in October, many good conversations, and one clear takeaway: there is real momentum in Canadian payments.

My first stop was Toronto, where a packed schedule of meetings gave me the chance to reconnect with familiar faces and meet new ones. Having spent several years working on Canadian payments modernization, I found it encouraging to hear the energy around the upcoming Real-Time Rail (RTR). There is a sense that something the industry has spent years discussing and building is close to becoming part of everyday life.

That matters. New infrastructure creates opportunities to improve how people and businesses pay, get paid and manage their finances. But the conversations also reminded me that launching a payment system is one milestone. Turning its capabilities into services customers actually want to use is the next challenge, and arguably where the most interesting work begins.

My second trip took me to Montreal for the Central 1 Momentum (great name in 2026) conference, where I spoke on The Future of Money. Spending time with credit unions added another perspective. The anticipation around RTR was there too, alongside thoughtful conversations about what modernization should deliver for credit unions and the members they serve.

There was also a healthy debate about where the industry should focus. How much effort should go into improving the rails we already have, and how much into newer developments such as stablecoins and tokenization?

It is a familiar discussion in every market I work in, and one I find particularly worthwhile. There are good reasons to explore new approaches. They may open up possibilities that are hard to achieve with existing infrastructure. Understanding them, testing them and challenging established assumptions are all part of moving the industry forward.

At the same time, people run into problems with payments today. A business waiting for money, a person struggling with an international transfer, or someone worried about sending funds to the wrong account needs a practical improvement now. The promise of a future solution does little for that frustration.

My view is that we need to be ambitious about both: improve the services people depend on today, while making room to explore what could serve them better tomorrow. The harder part is deciding where each approach creates enough value to justify the investment.

That starts with the customer experience. Four questions work for any payment method, old or new:

• Will the payment arrive when expected?
• Can the sender trust that it is going to the right recipient?
• Are the fees clear?
• If something goes wrong, can people understand what happened?

What encouraged me most across both trips was how openly people were willing to have these conversations. There was enthusiasm, but also challenge and real debate about how to turn investment and innovation into something useful.

Thank you to everyone I met in Toronto and Montreal, and to the Central 1 team for bringing so many perspectives together at Momentum. I left Canada excited about what is coming, and even more curious about what the industry will build on top of it.