Anyone can try Canada's new payment rail sandbox today, for free

An open door, no membership required

Payments Canada is creating a new payment system known as the Real-Time Rail (RTR). They also operate an open developer portal at developer.payments.ca.

You can register yourself. Provide your first name, last name, and an email address. You must be of majority age. A Payments Canada membership is not required. The portal terms state "There are currently no fees for using the Portal."

Once you register, you create an App to get a Consumer Key and Secret. This provides sandbox access on the same day. Payments Canada states the RTR sandbox is "open to any developer, business or individual." The sandbox APIs have been available since October 24, 2025. Payments Canada can revoke keys at any time.

What is in the catalogue

The portal shows 9 products as of August 31, 2026:

The ACSS API has restrictions. Only organizations with an Access Officer or Security Officer can use it. This means member institutions in practice. Member institutions pay a fee for a subscription to FIF production data. The portal does not have an e-Transfer API. The catalogue continues to grow, and Payments Canada sends notifications when new APIs are added.

• Access Token Generation
• RTR Sandbox API, which uses ISO 20022 payment messages
• Lynx Sandbox API
• FIF Branch API and FIF Extracts API, with bank routing and branch directory data updated weekly
• CCIN Lookup API and CCIN Extracts API, with financial institution reference data
• RTR FIN Lookup Database
• ACSS API

Inside the RTR sandbox

The RTR sandbox uses the ISO 20022 standard. This is the message standard for Canadian payments. The exchange endpoints handle the payment flow.

Reporting is included in the clearing and settlement endpoints. You can request a Balance Report or an Interest Report using a camt.003 message. The response arrives as a camt.004.

The portal states that an RTR Participant or Connection Service Provider (CSP) can use the Send Payment service. Payments Canada published ISO 20022 message specifications specifically for RTR. These include enhanced remittance data and support for global interoperability.

1. Send Payment uses a pacs.008 customer credit transfer message.
2. Responses arrive as pacs.002 or admi.002 messages.
3. Payment Enquiry uses pacs.028 to check payment status.
4. Heartbeat checks use admi.004.

Test data only, no real money

No actual money moves on the portal. The portal terms state: "All data accessed through the Portal, including through APIs, is dummy data unless otherwise expressly indicated." The sandbox APIs "call endpoints containing stubbed non-production data."

Accessing production is a different process. You have to meet the standards set by Payments Canada. You are also required to sign a separate agreement. Users send a production request to Payments Canada for review. In practice, this access is described for RTR participants and Connection Service Providers.

Why this matters for e-Transfer

Interac Corp. supplies the exchange component for the RTR. Vocalink from Mastercard handles clearing and settlement. The RTR By-law and Rules became effective on August 24, 2026. This date established the legal framework only. No consumer services went live that day.

The production launch target is Q4 2026. This will happen in phases, starting with initial direct participants first. Interac e-Transfer's migration to the RTR for clearing and settlement is targeted for Q1 2027 and Q2 2027. Full transaction volumes are targeted for Q3 2027. These dates are targets, and the schedule has moved before.

The e-Transfer product will look the same for users during the migration. Only the underlying systems change. You can use the sandbox to learn the message formats e-Transfer will use after the move.

What map.ca plans to do

map.ca intends to register on the portal. We plan to build against the RTR sandbox using our own hardware. Our team will capture sample messages and test our code against ISO 20022 shapes. We will publish our findings here as we progress. No work done in that sandbox will move or confirm real payments, and we will state this every time.