Bank of Canada payment system dates: Lynx windows and holidays

What to take away

Lynx settlement timing and the cutoff that binds you

Lynx is the high-value rail. Each payment settles individually in central bank money, so the system either moves your wire or it does not.

The Bank of Canada's core functions cover the systems where that settlement happens, which is why its published calendars carry more weight than an internal assumption.

Lynx runs one payments processing cycle per settlement day, and all its published times are Eastern time. The Bank of Canada and Payments Canada overview of Lynx operating hours sets out the settlement days and windows: the payments processing cycle starts at 12:30 a.m. and ends at 7:00 p.m. Regular client payments settle during Settlement Window 1, from 12:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Settlement Window 2, from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., is reserved for interbank lending, and in the Finalization Window, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., participants repay their intraday loans to the Bank of Canada. Lynx is open during regular business days and closed on weekends and federal statutory holidays. Check it before you promise a same-day wire.

Your binding deadline is earlier than the system close. Each participant sets a client cutoff to allow processing time, and a typical range runs from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time. Cutoffs vary by institution, currency and destination, so get yours in writing.

Lynx does not operate on weekends or on federal statutory holidays, and the list of those holidays sits on the Systems Closure Schedule page of Payments Canada's website. A Saturday instruction waits for the next settlement day. For a working list of the dates that do not count, a guide to federal holidays in business day counts separates the closures that change a count from those that do not.

ACSS batch windows and the federal holiday list

ACSS handles the volume side of Canadian payments, including cheques and pre-authorized debits. Items are netted and settled at scheduled windows on clearing days. ACSS is owned and operated by Payments Canada and clears retail payments, mostly cheques, pre-authorized debits and credits, and small-value electronic items such as point-of-sale debit transactions. The participants' multilateral net positions from ACSS are then settled by a transfer of funds through Lynx, so ACSS settlement also depends on Lynx being open.

Your delivery cutoff sits earlier than the window. A file handed to your bank on Thursday joins that day's batch, and settlement then follows the clearing calendar.

The Canada Labour Code sets the core federal dates: New Year's Day (January 1), Good Friday, Victoria Day (the Monday before May 25) and Canada Day (July 1).

The list continues with Labour Day (first Monday in September), National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30) and Thanksgiving (second Monday in October). Remembrance Day is November 11, Christmas Day is December 25 and Boxing Day is December 26.

For settlement, the list that decides is Payments Canada's Systems Closure Schedule. Open that page when a settlement date lands beside a long weekend.

Provincial holidays that close the desk, not the rail

Provincial holidays do not close Lynx. They close branches, treasury desks and back offices that release payments, which delays value even when the rail is open.

Quebec's Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day on June 24 is one example, and Montreal payroll and Quebec holiday counting under the Civil Code covers how provincial timing rules affect a payment date.

Ontario's Family Day falls on the third Monday of February, which is February 15 in 2027. British Columbia Day is the first Monday in August. Neither is a federal settlement holiday.

A wire authorized by a Toronto desk on Family Day may not be released until Tuesday, with Lynx open all day Monday. An open rail is necessary but not sufficient.

Example: a Family Day wire that Lynx would have settled

Example: a payroll team in Toronto releases a supplier wire on the Friday before Family Day. The contract asks for value by the following Monday.

The rail performed correctly. The delay came from release, not from Lynx. That distinction is what most payment calendars miss. If the same week contains a payday, how Ontario's Employment Standards Act counts business days for holiday pay covers the entitlement side of the closure.

Holiday scenarios and rail status

The table maps rail status to what your counterparty experiences.

Two errors recur. Checking only the federal list misses the provincial row that idles desks in Ontario and Quebec. Treating the system close as your own cutoff ignores the processing time your bank needs first.

Instruction date, settlement date and value

A payment date is when you instruct. A settlement date is when value moves between institutions and reaches the beneficiary.

For accounting, the gap decides the period. A payment instructed on the last day of a month but settled on the first of the next sits in a different period.

That shift also moves remittance timing, and how the CRA counts business days for filing and remittance deadlines covers the dates that follow the same rule. For payroll, employees are paid when funds are available. A missed settlement day is a missed payday.

Common questions