Payments Canada Launches Lynx, Canada’s New High-Value Payment System

Payments Canada announces today the launch of the first release of Lynx, Canada’s new high-value payment system. Lynx is replacing the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS), which has served as Canada’s high-value payment system for over 20 years.

Designated by the Bank of Canada as a systemically important payment system under the Payment Clearing and Settlement Act, Lynx will process large value, time-critical payments (i.e. wire payments) with real-time settlement finality and will provide enhanced cybersecurity and resiliency capabilities. Lynx has been designed with flexibility to support future technologies, including interfaces and APIs.

“The payments ecosystem is rapidly evolving. Our role at Payments Canada is to support the innovation of payments infrastructure and rules to make payments easier, smarter, and safer for all Canadians,” said Tracey Black, President and CEO at Payments Canada. “Lynx is an integral part of our broader payments Modernization initiative to deliver the future of payments for Canada. The launch of Lynx represents a significant collaborative effort between Payments Canada, our member participants, our technology partners IBM and SIA, and the Bank of Canada”.

“Canada’s economic and financial welfare depends critically on payment systems that operate behind the scenes,” said Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem. “It’s essential that Canada has a modern and robust wholesale payments system, and so, after much preparation, I’m very pleased to see the arrival of Lynx. The launch of Lynx is an important step in making sure Canada’s financial system remains secure, stable, and efficient in today’s rapidly evolving economy.”

Lynx will be owned and operated by Payments Canada and overseen by the Bank of Canada. It will be used to send and receive high-value payments by the following participants and their customers.

A second release, planned for late 2022, will introduce the ISO 20022 message standard. ISO 20022 allows for data-rich payments which will support the introduction of new products and services, and the digitization of manual and paper-based processes related to invoicing and payment reconciliation. The introduction of the ISO 20022 message standard will assist Canadian financial institutions in meeting SWIFT’s ISO 20022 global requirements.