Large Value Transfer System
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The Large Value Transfer System, or LVTS, is a system in Canada for electronic wire transfers of large sums of money; it permits the participating institutions and their clients to send securely large sums of money in real-time with complete certainty that the payment will settle.
LVTS processes the majority of payments made every day in Canada, and is designed to work with funds in Canadian dollars (CAD). On a normal business day, it clears and settles around CAD $115 billion.
Frequently, when settling the payments made through LVTS between each other, some banks find themselves with extra funds, while others find themselves short; to come up with money, the banks can borrow it from each other for a day, or "overnight". The rate at which they borrow is called overnight rate, targets for which are set by the Bank of Canada as part of its monetary policy.
Participating Institutions
As of 2004, there were 14 institutions participating in LVTS:
- Bank of Canada
- Bank of Montreal
- Royal Bank of Canada
- CIBC
- Toronto-Dominion Bank
- Bank of Nova Scotia
- National Bank of Canada
- Alberta Treasury Branches
- Bank of America National Association
- BNP Paribas (Canada)
- La Caisse centrale Desjardins du Québec
- Credit Union Central of Canada
- HSBC Canada
- Laurentian Bank of Canada
External links
- Bank of Canada Backgrounder on LVTS (http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/backgrounders/bg-p8.htm)
- Canadian Payments Association's LVTS Overview (http://www.cdnpay.ca/systems/lvts_overview.asp)