Technology-led innovation in the Canadian financial sector is
transforming the way Canadians access and use financial products
and services. In the 2025 Budget (the Budget), the federal
government (the government) reaffirmed its objective to modernize
Canada's payment systems by committing to launch
Canada's Real-Time Rail in 2026 and to implement two new
legislative frameworks: one governing consumer-driven banking and
the other governing fiat-backed stablecoins.
Advancing the consumer-driven banking framework
While many anticipated that the government would announce its
intention to introduce legislation to complete
the Consumer-Driven Banking Act (CDBA), the
Budget contained several surprising announcements with respect to
its plans to move forward with the CDBA's implementation and
oversight.