A Storm is Brewing

Real-time payments are prime for takeoff in Canada. Driven by the expectations of consumers, businesses, and financial institutions alike, the country has been on a path to modernizing its payments ecosystem for several years now. Consumers are increasingly digital first and expect to get things done at the push of a button – including making payments.

Real-time payments differ from traditional payments because of the speed at which they are initiated and settled (hence the term real-time), and because of their always-on nature: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Checks and traditional batch payments do not cut it anymore – consumers and businesses expect easy-to-use and instant payment services.

But a fraud storm is brewing. History tells us that easy-to-use and speed are features that fraudsters love to exploit – even going so far as kidnapping people, where victims are “being grabbed off the streets and held until they made a cash transfer for ransom”1. Unless payment stakeholders improve their defenses, cybercriminals will have a field day with real-time payments and Canadian consumers, businesses and financial institutions will pay the price. There is, however, a path forward to better payment risk management while enhancing customers’ experience, as outlined in this paper.