Canada’s recent approach to modernizing its payment system is unique: rather than relying on market disruption, or on private companies to innovate independently, Canada’s already strong and interoperable financial system has paved the way for coordinated evolution that has involved regulators, major financial institutions and shared infrastructure. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) could be a promising tool given Canada’s history of prioritizing coordination, interoperability, systemic stability and continuity over disruptive transformation.
DLT has the potential to reshape payment infrastructure through tokenization, programmable transactions and other features, creating opportunities to revolutionize treasury management, securities settlement, and domestic and cross-border payments while raising important questions around governance, stability and sovereignty. This paper provides a predictive analysis of how DLT-based payments are likely to evolve in Canada.
