Wire Transfers in Canada: Fees by Bank, What You Need and How Long They Take

A wire transfer moves money from your account into someone else’s through your financial institution. Within Canada, the recipient’s institution gets the payment message over Lynx, Canada’s high-value payment system, which also carries the Canadian leg of an international wire. As Payments Canada puts it, “the payment is final once it is in the recipient’s account, and the recipient can use the funds immediately”. Each institution sets its own fees; the table below gives each bank’s.

What does a wire transfer cost at each bank?

These are the fees each bank states for sending and receiving a wire, each linked to the bank’s own fee page.

A dash means this table shows no figure for that bank.

Checked against each bank's page on October 18, 2026.

The receiving institution deducts the fees that apply before it deposits the payment in the recipient’s account. On an outgoing wire, one bank says charges to cover intermediaries’ fees may also be deducted from the amount, so the recipient can get less than was sent (the bank’s wire page). What sending money abroad costs in total, including the exchange rate, is compared on sending money internationally.

How do banks take a wire, and how much can you send?

Payments Canada says a wire request can be made through an electronic interface, over the phone or in person at a branch, depending on the services the sender’s institution offers.

A dash means this table shows no figure for that bank.

Checked against each bank's page on October 18, 2026.

Some banks also run an online international transfer service that is separate from a branch wire, as one bank’s wire page shows. Those services are compared on sending money internationally.

What do you need to send a wire?

Payments Canada’s list of what your branch needs about the recipient is:

• their name, spelled as it is on their account, and their address;
• the account number the money goes to, without spaces or special characters;
• the branch’s name and address, including the postal code;
• the branch’s routing numbers: the 3-digit institution number and the 5-digit transit number;
• the institution’s SWIFT code (Business Identifier Code), if it has one;
• the amount, the value date, and who pays the service fees: you, the recipient, or both of you.

You also need enough money in your account, or enough credit, to cover the payment, and the bank takes it out of your account right away.

For some destinations, a bank may ask for more. One bank’s list adds an ABA routing number for the United States, a CLABE for Mexico and, for other countries and territories, an IBAN, each with the SWIFT code (the bank’s wire page). What an IBAN is, and whether a Canadian account has one, is on does Canada use IBAN.

To receive a wire instead, the sender needs your details, listed on what a sender abroad needs.

How long does a wire transfer take?

Within Canada. Payments Canada says the deposit often happens in near real-time, and the recipient can use the money as soon as it is in their account. Between institutions, the wire itself is processed in seconds wherever they are in Canada; the full time from your request to the recipient’s receipt depends on how complete, accurate and well formatted the details are.

Between two accounts at one institution. These “on-us” wires don’t go through Lynx, but most of Canada’s major institutions have adopted a voluntary practice of treating them like Lynx wires from the customer’s side.

Which days and hours. Institutions set their own opening and cut-off times for wires their customers send. Payments Canada systems are operational Monday to Friday, except statutory holidays. This year’s closure days are on bank holidays.

Abroad. Canadian institutions can send and receive wires in many currencies, and for some countries sanctions apply.

At one bank. One bank’s note under its wire fee table, which isn’t limited to wires abroad, says most transfers are completed within 1 to 3 business days (the bank’s wire page).

A wire that hasn’t arrived. Payments Canada’s advice is to contact your own financial institution, which is in the best position to look into it.

How does a wire compare with an e-Transfer or a bank draft?

• Interac e-Transfer: sends money directly from your bank account. Each bank’s sending limits are on e-Transfer limits by bank.
• Wire: moves money within Canada or internationally, at the fees in the table above, and is final once it is in the recipient’s account.
• Bank draft: a payment item a bank draws against its own account. How drafts and certified cheques differ is on bank drafts and certified cheques.

Payments Canada’s framework for wires doesn’t cover wires sent or received through cash stores or other money transfer businesses. Other ways to send money abroad, and their total cost, are on sending money internationally.

What if a wire was a scam or sent by mistake?

Once the money is in the recipient’s account, the wire is final and irrevocable. After a mistake, Payments Canada suggests contacting your financial institution right away, as it can explain your choices. More on getting a payment back is on cancelling a bank transfer and money sent to the wrong account, and the scams that use wires, and what to do after a loss, are on bank fraud and scams.

Related pages

• SWIFT codes of Canadian banks
• Receiving a wire at RBC, TD, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank and Desjardins
• Sending money internationally
• e-Transfer limits by bank
• Bank drafts and certified cheques
• Bank holidays
• US-dollar accounts