Payments Canada

Payments Canada (formerly the Canadian Payments Association) is the public-purpose organization created by federal statute (the Canadian Payments Act) that owns and operates Canada's core national payment clearing and settlement infrastructure, under the oversight of the Bank of Canada and the Minister of Finance. Its members are Canada's financial institutions. It operates Lynx (the high-value, ISO 20022 real-time gross settlement system that replaced LVTS), the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS, Canada's retail batch/ACH rail), and is building the Real-Time Rail (RTR) — a 24/7/365 irrevocable faster-payments system fully based on the ISO 20022 messaging standard. Payments Canada is payments infrastructure, distinct from Canada's Consumer-Driven Banking (open banking) framework, which is legislated but not yet operational and overseen by the FCAC. It runs a real, publicly registerable API developer portal (developer.payments.ca, launched February 19, 2020) exposing member/registered-user sandbox and data-extract APIs — including downloadable RTR sandbox OpenAPI specifications — secured with OAuth2 client-credentials (Consumer Key/Secret via Apigee); production access is license/agreement gated.

Payments Canada publishes 8 APIs on the APIs.io network, including RTR Sandbox - Inbound Participant Payment API, RTR Sandbox - Inbound Exchange Heartbeat API, RTR Sandbox - Interest Report API, and 5 more. Tagged areas include Financial Services, Payments, Canada, Payment Infrastructure, and Clearing and Settlement.

Payments Canada’s developer surface includes authentication, sandbox, documentation, getting-started guide, support, and 22 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
45.9/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 69/100 agent native Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
10 APIs 1 MCP Servers
Financial ServicesPaymentsCanadaPayment InfrastructureClearing and SettlementReal-Time RailISO 20022LynxCrown CorporationFaster Payments

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
Composite quality — 45.9/100 · developing
Contract Quality 13.1 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 13.9 / 20
Commercial Clarity 4.2 / 20
Operational Transparency 0.7 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 8.8 / 10
Agent readiness — 69/100 · agent native
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 15 / 15
MCP Server 12 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 5 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 4 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/payments-canada: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 10

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

RTR Sandbox - Inbound Participant Payment API

Real-Time Rail sandbox API for sending an RTR payment (ISO 20022 pacs.008 Customer Credit Transfer) to another RTR participant and enquiring on payment status (pacs.028), return...

RTR Sandbox - Inbound Exchange Heartbeat API

Real-Time Rail sandbox API for sending heartbeat requests between a participant and the RTR exchange (ISO 20022 admi.004 System Event Notification), returning admi.011 System Ev...

RTR Sandbox - Interest Report API

Real-Time Rail sandbox clearing-and-settlement API that calls the C&S system to generate an interest report (ISO 20022 camt.003 Get Account returning camt.004 Return Account wit...

RTR Sandbox - Payment Capacity Balance Report API

Real-Time Rail sandbox clearing-and-settlement API that calls the C&S system to generate a payment-capacity balance report (ISO 20022 camt.003 Get Account returning camt.004 Ret...

Lynx Sandbox API

Sandbox APIs giving members access to test-data interactions with Lynx, Canada's high-value ISO 20022 real-time gross settlement system. Access is member-gated (contact your org...

ACSS API

APIs for the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS), Canada's retail batch/ACH clearing rail. Access is member-gated via the developer portal.

FIF Extracts API

Financial Institutions File (FIF) extracts API returning master and weekly updated extract data for Canadian financial institutions. Registered-user access via the developer por...

FIF Branch API

Financial Institutions File (FIF) branch API returning weekly branch extract data for Canadian financial institutions. Registered-user access via the developer portal.

CCIN Extracts API

Corporate Creditor Identification Number (CCIN) extracts API returning master and updated extract data matching the weekly file distribution. Registered-user access via the deve...

CCIN Lookup API

Corporate Creditor Identification Number (CCIN) single-lookup API returning weekly extract data for a specific corporate creditor. Registered-user access via the developer portal.

Scroll for all 10

MCP Servers 1

Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.

payments-canada-mcp.yml

MCP SERVER

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Payments Canada Authentication

apiKey/oauth2 · 2 schemes

SECURITY

Payments Canada Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Scopes 1

OAuth scopes governing access to this provider's APIs.

Payments Canada Scopes

1 scope · clientCredentials

1 scopes

SCOPES

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Payments Canada Agentic Access

11 operations · 5 acting

11 operations · 5 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Sandbox
Sandbox
 DeveloperPortal
DeveloperPortal
 GettingStarted
GettingStarted

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation

Agent Surfaces 5

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess
 WellKnown
WellKnown
 MCPServer
MCPServer
 LLMsTxt
LLMsTxt
 AgentSkill
AgentSkill

Design & Contract 5

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conventions
Conventions
 ErrorCatalog
ErrorCatalog
 Conformance
Conformance
 Lifecycle
Lifecycle
 DataModel
DataModel

Build 3

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

ToolCrosswalk
ToolCrosswalk
 GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 Postman
Postman

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity
 OAuthScopes
OAuthScopes
 Authentication
Authentication

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support
Support

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService
TermsOfService
 PrivacyPolicy
PrivacyPolicy

Company 3

The organization behind the API

Website
Website
 LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 Twitter
Twitter

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

APIStandards
APIStandards

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: payments-canada
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/payments-canada/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: Payments Canada
kind: company
description: Payments Canada (formerly the Canadian Payments Association) is the public-purpose organization created by federal
  statute (the Canadian Payments Act) that owns and operates Canada's core national payment clearing and settlement infrastructure,
  under the oversight of the Bank of Canada and the Minister of Finance. Its members are Canada's financial institutions.
  It operates Lynx (the high-value, ISO 20022 real-time gross settlement system that replaced LVTS), the Automated Clearing
  Settlement System (ACSS, Canada's retail batch/ACH rail), and is building the Real-Time Rail (RTR) — a 24/7/365 irrevocable
  faster-payments system fully based on the ISO 20022 messaging standard. Payments Canada is payments infrastructure, distinct
  from Canada's Consumer-Driven Banking (open banking) framework, which is legislated but not yet operational and overseen
  by the FCAC. It runs a real, publicly registerable API developer portal (developer.payments.ca, launched February 19, 2020)
  exposing member/registered-user sandbox and data-extract APIs — including downloadable RTR sandbox OpenAPI specifications
  — secured with OAuth2 client-credentials (Consumer Key/Secret via Apigee); production access is license/agreement gated.
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Financial Services
- Payments
- Canada
- Payment Infrastructure
- Clearing and Settlement
- Real-Time Rail
- ISO 20022
- Lynx
- Crown Corporation
- Faster Payments
created: '2026-07-23'
modified: '2026-07-23'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: payments-canada:rtr-inbound-participant-payment-api
  name: RTR Sandbox - Inbound Participant Payment API
  description: Real-Time Rail sandbox API for sending an RTR payment (ISO 20022 pacs.008 Customer Credit Transfer) to another
    RTR participant and enquiring on payment status (pacs.028), returning a payment status report (pacs.002) or message reject
    (admi.002). OAuth2 client-credentials; OpenAPI 3.0.3 harvested verbatim from the developer portal Swagger UI.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox-api/apis
  baseURL: https://api.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox
  tags:
  - Real-Time Rail
  - Payments
  - ISO 20022
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/rtr-inbound-participant-payment-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/rtr-inbound-participant-payment-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox-api/apis
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://storage.googleapis.com/prod-apigee-bucket-swagger/index.html
- aid: payments-canada:rtr-inbound-heartbeat-api
  name: RTR Sandbox - Inbound Exchange Heartbeat API
  description: Real-Time Rail sandbox API for sending heartbeat requests between a participant and the RTR exchange (ISO 20022
    admi.004 System Event Notification), returning admi.011 System Event Acknowledgement or admi.002 Message Reject. OAuth2
    client-credentials; OpenAPI 3.0.3 harvested verbatim.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox-api/apis
  baseURL: https://api.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox
  tags:
  - Real-Time Rail
  - ISO 20022
  - Monitoring
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/rtr-inbound-csp-heartbeat-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/rtr-inbound-csp-heartbeat-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox-api/apis
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://storage.googleapis.com/prod-apigee-bucket-swagger/index.html
- aid: payments-canada:rtr-interest-report-api
  name: RTR Sandbox - Interest Report API
  description: Real-Time Rail sandbox clearing-and-settlement API that calls the C&S system to generate an interest report
    (ISO 20022 camt.003 Get Account returning camt.004 Return Account with interest data). OAuth2 client-credentials; OpenAPI
    3.0.3 harvested verbatim.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox-api/apis
  baseURL: https://api.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox
  tags:
  - Real-Time Rail
  - Clearing and Settlement
  - ISO 20022
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/rtr-interest-report-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/rtr-interest-report-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox-api/apis
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://storage.googleapis.com/prod-apigee-bucket-swagger/index.html
- aid: payments-canada:rtr-balance-report-api
  name: RTR Sandbox - Payment Capacity Balance Report API
  description: Real-Time Rail sandbox clearing-and-settlement API that calls the C&S system to generate a payment-capacity
    balance report (ISO 20022 camt.003 Get Account returning camt.004 Return Account with balance data). OAuth2 client-credentials;
    OpenAPI 3.0.3 harvested verbatim.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox-api/apis
  baseURL: https://api.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox
  tags:
  - Real-Time Rail
  - Clearing and Settlement
  - ISO 20022
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/rtr-balance-report-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/rtr-balance-report-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/rtr-sandbox-api/apis
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://storage.googleapis.com/prod-apigee-bucket-swagger/index.html
- aid: payments-canada:lynx-sandbox-api
  name: Lynx Sandbox API
  description: Sandbox APIs giving members access to test-data interactions with Lynx, Canada's high-value ISO 20022 real-time
    gross settlement system. Access is member-gated (contact your organization's Access Officer / Security Officer); no downloadable
    OpenAPI is published publicly for Lynx.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/lynx-sandbox-api/apis
  tags:
  - Lynx
  - High-Value Payments
  - ISO 20022
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/lynx-sandbox-api/apis
- aid: payments-canada:acss-api
  name: ACSS API
  description: APIs for the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS), Canada's retail batch/ACH clearing rail. Access is
    member-gated via the developer portal.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/acss-api/apis
  tags:
  - ACSS
  - Retail Payments
  - Clearing and Settlement
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/acss-api/apis
- aid: payments-canada:fif-extracts-api
  name: FIF Extracts API
  description: Financial Institutions File (FIF) extracts API returning master and weekly updated extract data for Canadian
    financial institutions. Registered-user access via the developer portal.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/fif-extracts-api/apis
  baseURL: https://api.payments.ca/fif-extracts
  tags:
  - Financial Institutions File
  - Reference Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/fif-extracts-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/fif-extracts-api/apis
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/fif-extracts-api-overlay.yaml
- aid: payments-canada:fif-branch-api
  name: FIF Branch API
  description: Financial Institutions File (FIF) branch API returning weekly branch extract data for Canadian financial institutions.
    Registered-user access via the developer portal.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/fif-branch-api/apis
  baseURL: https://api.payments.ca/fif-branch
  tags:
  - Financial Institutions File
  - Reference Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/fif-branch-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/fif-branch-api/apis
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/fif-branch-api-overlay.yaml
- aid: payments-canada:ccin-extracts-api
  name: CCIN Extracts API
  description: Corporate Creditor Identification Number (CCIN) extracts API returning master and updated extract data matching
    the weekly file distribution. Registered-user access via the developer portal.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/ccin-extracts-api/apis
  baseURL: https://api.payments.ca
  tags:
  - CCIN
  - Reference Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ccin-extracts-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/ccin-extracts-api/apis
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/ccin-extracts-api-overlay.yaml
- aid: payments-canada:ccin-lookup-api
  name: CCIN Lookup API
  description: Corporate Creditor Identification Number (CCIN) single-lookup API returning weekly extract data for a specific
    corporate creditor. Registered-user access via the developer portal.
  humanURL: https://developer.payments.ca/ccin-lookup-api/apis
  baseURL: https://api.payments.ca
  tags:
  - CCIN
  - Reference Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ccin-lookup-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.payments.ca/ccin-lookup-api/apis
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/ccin-lookup-api-overlay.yaml
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/payments-canada-domain-security.yml
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/payments-canada-agentic-access.yml
- type: OAuthScopes
  url: scopes/payments-canada-scopes.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/payments-canada-authentication.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/payments-canada-conventions.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/payments-canada-problem-types.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/payments-canada-conformance.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/payments-canada-lifecycle.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/payments-canada-data-model.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/payments-canada-well-known.yml
- type: Sandbox
  url: sandbox/payments-canada-sandbox.yml
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/payments-canada-mcp.yml
- type: ToolCrosswalk
  url: mcp/payments-canada-tool-crosswalk.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/payments-canada-llms.txt
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.payments.ca/
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://developer.payments.ca/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://developer.payments.ca/apis
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://developer.payments.ca/getting-started
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/paymentscanada
- type: APIStandards
  url: https://developer.payments.ca/payments-canada-api-standards
- type: Postman
  url: https://github.com/paymentscanada/api-toolkit/tree/develop/postman-collection
- type: Support
  url: https://developer.payments.ca/content/contact-us
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://developer.payments.ca/legal
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://developer.payments.ca/legal
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/payments-canada
- type: Twitter
  url: https://twitter.com/paymentscanada
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com