Bank of Canada Will Start Naming Payment Apps That Break the Rules

More and more Canadians keep cash in payment apps and use third-party services to send money, pay bills, and get paid. The Bank of Canada has announced that it will soon begin publicly naming the payment service providers (PSPs) it penalizes for breaking the rules under the Retail Payment Activities Act. For your everyday money, this is a small but useful new layer of consumer protection.

What is changing

When a PSP receives a Notice of Violation and the window to respond has closed, the Bank of Canada will publish the decision in its Enforcement decisions section and flag it on the provider's entry in the public PSP Registry. The published notice will describe the nature of the violation and any administrative monetary penalty. In short, providers that mishandle safeguarding of funds or operational requirements can now be looked up by name.

Why it matters for your household finances

• Money you park in a payment app is part of your assets. A provider with safeguarding problems is a risk to balances you may be counting on.

• You can now check a provider before trusting it with payroll, rent, or recurring bill payments.

• Greater transparency tends to push providers to tighten controls, which lowers the odds of frozen funds or service disruptions hitting your cash flow.

How to use this in AffordaFlow

Treat balances held in payment apps as a distinct asset line in your projection rather than lumping them in with your bank account. If a provider you rely on appears on the enforcement list, AffordaFlow lets you model the impact of temporarily losing access to those funds, so you can keep a buffer in a separate, insured account and see how your savings and monthly cash flow hold up under that stress test.

Source: Bank of Canada to begin publishing Notices of Violation by Payment Service Providers (June 12, 2026)

This article is informational and not financial advice.