Last week, we joined more than 2,500 delegates in Toronto for the 2026 Payments Canada SUMMIT.
The theme,
*Accelerate Economic Growth*, set a confident tone, and the headline topics were exactly what you'd expect: Real-Time Rail, fraud, customer trust, and Canada's growing digital and economic sovereignty.
From the main stage, Minister Champagne and Susan Hawkins made a compelling case that modern payment infrastructure is national infrastructure. The UK was referenced repeatedly as the template: Faster Payments, Open Banking, regulatory maturity. The room was energised. The ambition was clear.
But the conversation that stayed with us wasn't the one on the main stage.
The Quiet Conversation in the Corners
Between sessions, over coffee, in the hallways, we kept finding ourselves in the same discussion with leaders from BMO, TD, Tangerine and others. Not about the payment itself. About what happens after the payment.
Every senior leader we spoke to was, in some form, grappling with the future of their collections and receivables operation. And the shape of the challenge was remarkably consistent across institutions:
Buy versus build, with no confident answer yet. Teams know their current platforms weren't designed for the world that's arriving. But few have a confident view on whether to replace, extend, or wrap what they already have.
Data access is the real bottleneck. The ambition is digital-first, AI-supported, customer-aware collections. The reality is fragmented data, legacy integrations, and a long road to clean before the AI roadmaps of the next two to five years have anything meaningful to learn from.
Customer trust is more fragile than ever. Collections is the part of the customer relationship most likely to damage it. In a market increasingly shaped by Consumer Duty-style expectations and public scrutiny, getting this wrong is no longer just an operational problem. It's reputational and regulatory.
Scale freezes ambition. The size of the transformation required, combined with the sensitivity of the customer base involved, makes leaders understandably cautious about moving first.
And running underneath all of it: Real-Time Rail launches Q4 2026. Instant settlement fundamentally changes the economics of failed payments, mandate breaks and early-stage delinquency. Collections stacks built for ACSS batch timing will feel that shift quickly. It is the obvious next domino, and it is not yet on most transformation roadmaps.
Why the UK Comparison Cuts Both Ways
Canadian payments leaders were right to look to the UK as a reference point. Faster Payments, Open Banking and the FCA's Consumer Duty have genuinely reshaped that market. The progress is real.
But the UK experience also contains a lesser told story.
The firms that moved first on payments modernisation, and last on collections modernisation, paid for it. Recovery rates dropped. Customer complaints rose. Regulators noticed. The collections function caught up, but under pressure, on the back foot, and at premium cost.
Canada has a rare advantage: the ability to see that pattern before it plays out at home. The window to act ahead of it is open now. It will not stay open indefinitely.
Where Arum Fits
Arum has spent 25 years helping banks, lenders, telcos, utilities and public-sector bodies across more than 20 countries transform their collections and recoveries operations, through exactly the kind of payments modernisation Canada is about to go through.
We're independent. We don't sell software. We've reviewed more than 30 collections platforms globally through our Arum Approved programme, and we've helped clients navigate buy-versus-build decisions, build the data foundations that AI actually requires, and develop customer-trust-led operating models, without the false starts.
If you're a Canadian institution thinking seriously about what RTR, AI and digital transformation mean for the *back half* of the customer lifecycle, the part that determines whether modernisation actually pays back, that's the conversation we'd like to have.
How we can help
Organisations don’t need to navigate this alone. Many benefit from an independent view of their current collections environment, from call listening and skills analysis to identifying gaps, strengthening processes and supporting training delivery.
With the right expertise behind them, teams can embed these behaviours quickly and confidently, creating lasting change for customers and the organisation.
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About the author
Stephen is Sales Director at Arum Global, leading financial services engagements across the UK and Canada. He brings extensive experience delivering complex solutions to major enterprises, having previously worked with clients such as Citi Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Centrica, Chevron & Shell amongst other complex enterprise clients. Stephen combines deep industry knowledge with a consultative approach to drive transformation and measurable results.
Stephen Wright
Sales Director