Multipass is a financial services provider offering global business accounts, multi-currency payments, and cross-border transaction solutions.
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E-Wallet
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Canada · PSP
E-wallet platform for Canadian payment service providers
A wallet that keeps money for its users maintains accounts and holds funds, two of the five payment functions in the Retail Payment Activities Act. That puts it under Bank of Canada supervision, and once users can send money to each other, usually under FINTRAC as a money services business too.
- Wallets in CAD and other currencies
- Each user's funds at the end of every day
- Monthly averages for the annual report
- Limits by verification level
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What a registered PSP can launch as a wallet
Stored-value wallets
A CAD wallet for each user, with USD or other currency balances alongside it, and available and reserved amounts kept apart on the ledger.
Payments between users
Users look each other up by phone number or email and pay instantly inside the wallet, with a second factor on every payment.
Onboarding in steps
Several verification levels, each with its own limits, so your compliance officer decides what a user can do before and after identity checks through a connected provider.
Money in and out through your bank
User funds sit in your trust or safeguarding account at a bank, and the ledger splits them into named wallets. The CAD connection to that bank is scoped in your project.
Notifications and confirmations
Push notifications for every top-up, payment and withdrawal, and two-factor confirmation for the actions that move money.
What this licence does not cover
- Opening the wallet before the Bank of Canada registers you. New PSPs must be registered before they perform any retail payment activity.
- Treating deposit insurance at your bank as safeguarding. The Act asks for a trust account, or a dedicated account backed by insurance or a guarantee.
- Describing wallet balances as bank deposits. A PSP does not take deposits, and the funds are not covered by CDIC.
What the regulator asks about your IT
Each requirement, what the platform gives you for it and who owns it after launch.
A description of each flow, from top-up and holding to payments between users and withdrawal, and where each one runs.
You, with your lawyersThe ledger produces this list for every wallet holder, each day, as an export.
Your finance team, on platform dataOne omnibus account split into named user balances on the ledger. The account and any insurance are arranged by you.
YouBalances and contact details per user that an insolvency administrator can work from.
You, with platform dataA description of the platform, hosting, backups and our incident process, for the third-party part of your framework.
Your senior officer, with our inputDetection and resolution times from our incident process as your technology provider.
SharedDaily totals of user funds, with each user's country on record, ready for the monthly averages.
You, with platform dataA description of the new feature's flows, such as adding cards or a currency, for your notice.
YouVerification levels, identity checks through connected providers and full payment history per user.
Your compliance officer
Payment rails and providers
Rails your customers can use
Transfers between walletsSWIFTUS ACHCAD through your bank
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.
1 to 15 Nov 2024
Application window for PSPs that were already operating. A new wallet provider now applies through PSP Connect and waits for a decision.
8 Sep 2025
RPAA obligations started. Registered PSPs need working risk management and safeguarding frameworks.
12 Jun 2026
The Bank of Canada began publishing notices of violation by PSPs, so enforcement is now public.
31 Mar 2027
Annual report for 2026 due, with the average end-of-day user funds for each month of the year.
Registering a wallet with the Bank of Canada? Show one that works.
The Bank wants to understand where users' money sits and what happens if something breaks. We give you a live wallet and the technical write-up behind it, and your lawyers handle the RPAA application and the FINTRAC registration.
01
A platform you can demonstrate
A configured environment to show the regulator, not slides.
02
The technical part of your application, prepared
The flow behind each payment function, safeguarding records, hosting, third parties and incident handling, written for your RPAA application and frameworks.
03
Providers lined up
Banking, safeguarding and KYC providers from our network, matched to your registration.
Crassula provides technology and documentation support. We do not provide legal or regulatory advice and cannot guarantee the outcome of an application.
How a launch usually runs
Imagine a Vancouver team building a wallet for international students. Parents send money from abroad, and students pay each other for rent and groceries. The lawyers confirm that the wallet maintains accounts and holds funds, so the team registers with FINTRAC as an MSB and applies to the Bank of Canada.
While the application is reviewed, we set up the wallet in their brand and the team opens a trust account at a Canadian bank. Once registered, students join at a basic verification level and move to higher limits after their ID check. Every evening the platform lists each student's funds with name and contact details, and finance compares the total with the trust account. The daily totals later feed the monthly averages in the annual report.
For the rules, read our RPAA registration guide and the guide to MSB registration in Canada.
Read the licence guides
FAQ
Usually, if it keeps balances for users and that is your business rather than a side activity. One exception is a closed-loop instrument that can only be spent with the merchant that issued it, or within a group of merchants, which the Act excludes.
If users can send money to other people, or you exchange currencies for them, the wallet is usually transferring funds as a money services business and needs FINTRAC registration as well. Our MSB guide covers that side.
Either works, and you can combine them. A trust account holds user funds in trust for nothing else. The alternative is a dedicated account plus insurance or a guarantee for at least the amount held, from a prudentially regulated provider that is not affiliated with you. The bank may not apply set-off to either account.
Among other things, the average value in CAD of the funds you held at the end of each day, for each month of the year, for all users and for users in Canada. The report for a calendar year is due by 31 March of the next year.
The application fee was CAD 2,500 when the regime started and is indexed to inflation for later years. The Act sets no minimum capital. The bigger costs are the trust or insurance arrangement, the frameworks and their independent reviews.
Yes, if you perform payment functions for users in Canada and direct your service at them, even without a place of business in the country. You then register with the Bank of Canada and meet the same safeguarding and reporting rules as a Canadian PSP.
