Canadian payment‑rails innovator Zūm Rails has announced a milestone partnership with Western Union Canada, designed to enable real‑time, cross‑border money transfers—funded via Interac e‑Transfer—to more than 200 countries and territories worldwide businesswire.com.
As Interac e‑Transfers facilitated over $338 billion in transactions over the past year in Canada—with 88% of Canadians leveraging it—the system has become a staple for domestic remittances . This new partnership lets users fund transfers instantly via Interac, before Zūm Rails’ APIs route funds in real time through Western Union’s global network.
Zūm Rails CEO Miles Schwartz emphasized that “real‑time money movement [is] a non‑negotiable service,” highlighting fintech–bank collaborations as engines for payment modernization businesswire.com.
Ranjit Sarai, VP of Digital & Ecosystem at Western Union Canada, added that clients should expect the same speed in global remittances as in peer‑to‑peer apps, signaling this move as the beginning of broader digital financial services expansions .
Why it matters:
- Canadian users can now instantly bridge domestic teaching (via Interac) with global payouts.
- Businesses gain access to faster settlement capabilities with minimal integration.
- Sets a precedent for cross-border real-time rails—a significant leap for global remittances.
What’s next:
The pair will focus on compliance-rich integration and future digital features to refresh Western Union’s suite with use cases such as payroll, supplier payments, and platform disbursements—all powered by real-time transfers.
