How to set up a payee in Canada through the Local Network

This article will walk through how to send and add a payee in Canada using the Local Network. 

A payee can be any other stakeholder to whom you are trying to send funds (e.g., a vendor, employee, contractor, or a personal account of yours to which you wish to send funds).

If you are looking to send an international wire to Canada using the Swift Network, please see: Sending an international wire through the Swift Network.

How to add a payee in Canada through the Local Network:

  1. Sign in to your Relay account.
  2. Navigate to the Payments tab, then select Payees from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click New Payee at the top-right corner of your screen.
  4. In the pop-up modal, fill in the necessary payee information (nickname, email address [optional], account classification, and default memo).
  5. Select the payee's payment method in this case, you will select International Wire (Local Network). Additional payment methods can be added later.
  6. Fields will prompt you to enter the payee's account information. Since the payee is from Canada, the required information will be:
    • Recipients full name or Business name
    • Recipients full address
    • Bank Code 
    • Branch Code 
    • Account number
      •  Please be sure to confirm these details with the payee directly, to ensure that payments are sent to the right account.
      • If you've entered your payee's email address, you can also opt to send a request to the payee to enter their account details themselves. For more information on this, please see Requesting payment information from payees.
  7. When finished, click Create Payee. You can now send payments to your payee.

Please note:

  • Your Payee's Recipient Address for Domestic and International Wires must be a valid physical address and cannot be a PO Box.
  • You can also create a payee while sending a payment. When sending a payment following the steps outlined in the articles linked above, the first step is selecting your payee. You can also create a new payee during this step if you haven't added your payee to Relay yet. 
  • At this time, the ability to create payees and send international wires through the Local Network is not available on the mobile app.

What are Account Numbers, Bank and Branch Code:

  • Account number: 7-35 digits
  • Bank Code: Also known as ‘(Financial) Institution Number’. The Bank Code indicates which bank the payment should be sent to. The full list of Bank Codes is available at Payments Canada. A combination of Bank Code and Branch Code is often referred to as a Routing Number. 
  • Branch Code: Also known as ‘Transit (Branch) Number’. The Branch Code indicates which branch at the bank the payment should be sent to. The full list of Branch Codes is available at Payments Canada. A combination of Bank Code and Branch Code is often referred to as a Routing Number. A Routing Number takes the format 0XXXYYYYY and is made up of:
    • a leading 0
    • the 3 digit Bank Code (XXX),
    • the 5 digit Branch Code (YYYYY). 

Articles in this section

Was this article helpful?