Core Banking

Canada · MSB

Core banking for Canadian money services businesses

Once your MSB keeps balances for clients, two regulators look at the same ledger. FINTRAC wants to trace every transfer back to a verified client, and since September 2025 the Bank of Canada wants to know what you owe each of them at the end of every day.

  • CAD, USD and other currencies on one ledger
  • Transaction data for FINTRAC reports
  • End-of-day balance per client for the RPAA
  • Documentation for your Bank of Canada file
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Back-office dashboard with accounts and balances
Mobile banking app in your brand

Case Studies

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Multipass is a financial services provider offering global business accounts, multi-currency payments, and cross-border transaction solutions.

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Multipass Case study
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Paysend & Crassula - a banking solution for international companies

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LuxPay is at the forefront of providing advanced financial services, designed to meet the needs of modern businesses and consumers alike.

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Wickie offers secure and scalable fiat and cryptocurrency payment solutions, providing users with digital wallets and seamless financial services across multiple platforms.

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What you can run as a FINTRAC-registered MSB

Client balances in several currencies

Wallet-style balances in CAD, USD, EUR and other currencies for each client, with current, reserved and available amounts kept apart on the ledger.

Currency exchange for clients

Spot conversion between a client's own balances, with the rate and your spread written to the transaction record. Spreads live in price lists, so changing them is a back-office task.

Business client accounts

Importers, exporters and other companies onboarded with directors and beneficial owners, several users per company, roles, batch payments and approval steps.

Mobile banking app with a branded Visa card added to Apple Wallet
Mobile banking app home screen with balance, Add money and Send buttons

One bank account, many client balances

Client money sits in an omnibus or trust account at your bank, and the ledger splits it into named balances, so you always know whose money is whose.

International payments

Outgoing and incoming SWIFT payments, plus SEPA and US ACH through connected providers, each posted to the client's balance with sender and recipient details attached.

Back office for compliance staff

Client files, transaction history, limits and freezes in one dashboard, with an audit trail of who changed what.

What this licence does not cover

  • Taking deposits. An MSB is not a deposit-taking institution, and client balances are not CDIC-insured deposits, so your terms and app must not present them as such.
  • Holding client funds on FINTRAC registration alone. If you keep balances or move money for end users, you will usually also need Bank of Canada registration under the Retail Payment Activities Act.
  • Serving clients in Quebec without a licence from the Autorité des marchés financiers, which the province requires on top of the federal registration.

What the regulator asks about your IT

Each requirement, what the platform gives you for it and who owns it after launch.

Onboarding questionnaires by client type, client limits and per-client risk data that your policies and risk assessment can refer to.

Your compliance officer

Identity checks for individuals through connected verification providers, and company onboarding that records directors and owners.

Your compliance officer

Timestamped transfer records per client that can be exported and grouped over 24 hours to find reportable transfers.

You file with FINTRAC, on platform data

Full transaction history per client as the input for your monitoring tool or a connected provider. The platform does not decide what is suspicious.

Your compliance officer

Client records, transfer details with exchange rates and an audit trail of back-office actions, kept and retrievable for the full period.

Shared

Originator and beneficiary name, address and account number stored on every transfer record. The messaging itself runs through your bank or payment provider.

You, with your payment provider

An end-of-day balance for every end user with name and contact details, exported to reconcile against your trust or segregated account.

Your finance team, on platform data

A description of the platform, its hosting and backups, our incident process and the providers behind it, for your third-party section.

Your senior officer, with our input

Activity figures, such as numbers of end users, transactions and values, pulled from reporting endpoints and exports.

You, with platform data
Compliance documents card with created, sent, verification and accepted steps

Payment rails and providers

Rails your customers can use

SWIFTUS ACHSEPASEPA InstantTransfers between your clients
24/7
real-time processing, no batch window
60+
payment and provider integrations connected
150+
companies run on Crassula
15+
languages the platform speaks

Dates to plan around

Rules that change what you have to build, in the order they apply.

8 Sep 2025

Bank of Canada supervision under the RPAA began. Payment service providers must have their risk management and safeguarding frameworks in place.

26 Mar 2026

FINTRAC's new administrative monetary penalties framework took effect, with higher maximum penalties plus compliance agreements and orders.

Q4 2026

Payments Canada plans to launch the Real-Time Rail. Only Payments Canada members can apply to take part, and RPAA-registered PSPs are now eligible for membership.

31 Mar 2027

Annual report to the Bank of Canada for calendar year 2026 is due, covering operational risk, incidents, safeguarding and activity figures.

Registering with FINTRAC and the Bank of Canada? Bring a working platform.

Both regulators want to understand how money moves through your business. We give you a live platform and the technical write-up behind it, and your lawyers and compliance officer handle the registrations themselves.

01

A platform you can demonstrate

A configured environment to show the regulator, not slides.

02

The technical part of your application, prepared

System description, hosting, third-party and incident sections for your RPAA framework, and a map of the data behind your FINTRAC reports.

03

Providers lined up

Banking, safeguarding and KYC providers from our network, matched to your registration.

Talk to us about your application

Crassula provides technology and documentation support. We do not provide legal or regulatory advice and cannot guarantee the outcome of an application.

Policy document prepared for a licence application
Transactions list with completed and canceled status badges

How a launch usually runs

Take a currency exchange firm in Toronto that pays overseas suppliers for Canadian importers. It is already registered with FINTRAC, but clients now keep USD and CAD balances between payments, which puts the firm under the Retail Payment Activities Act as well.

We set up the platform in the firm's brand and move client balances onto the ledger, one balance per client and currency. The compliance officer gets transaction exports in the shape the EFT reports need, and the finance team uses the end-of-day client balances to reconcile against the trust account at its bank. The same balances, together with the incident log, feed the annual report to the Bank of Canada.

For the regulatory background, read our guide to MSB registration in Canada and the RPAA registration guide.

Read the licence guides

FAQ

No. At federal level it is a registration with FINTRAC under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, renewed every two years. Quebec is the exception: firms serving clients there also need a licence from the Autorité des marchés financiers.

Usually, if you keep client balances or move money for end users. Those are payment functions under the Retail Payment Activities Act, and since 8 September 2025 they need Bank of Canada registration on top of FINTRAC. Our RPAA guide covers the scope test.

No. Reports to FINTRAC are filed by your MSB. The platform keeps the transaction and client data those reports are built from and exports it, and your compliance officer, or a connected monitoring provider, decides what is reported.

The Regulations ask for a record of each end user's name, contact details and the amount held for them at the end of every day. The ledger produces that list, and your finance team compares it with the trust or segregated account and logs any shortfall.

Yes. Each client can have balances in several currencies on the same ledger, with conversions between them at the rates and spreads you set. The money itself stays at the bank where you hold your client accounts.

Federal rules set no minimum capital for FINTRAC registration or for RPAA registration. Banks and safeguarding providers may still ask for a funded balance sheet before they open client accounts.

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