CAD Payouts via Interac e-Transfer

Use Fincra to send Canadian dollars directly to a recipient’s Canadian bank account through Interac e-Transfer.

The recipient is identified using the email address registered for Interac Autodeposit. You do not need their bank account number.

This guide explains how to:

• Verify that the recipient has Interac Autodeposit enabled.
• Send CAD from your CAD wallet.
• Send CAD from another supported currency, such as KES.
• Track the payout until it succeeds or fails.

flowchart TD
      A["Collect recipient's<br/>Interac email"] --> B["Verify email and<br/>Autodeposit status"]
      B --> C{"Autodeposit<br/>enabled?"}
      C -->|Enabled| D["Generate a quote<br/>if currencies differ"]
      C -->|Disabled| G["Collect a security question<br/>and answer"]
      G --> D
      D --> F["Create the payout"]
      F --> H["Track the payout<br/>using webhooks"]

The number of API calls depends on the source currency:

Before you begin

You need:

• Your Fincra API credentials.
• Your Fincra business ID.
• Access to CAD payouts through Interac.
• A funded wallet for the source currency.
• The recipient’s Interac email address.
• The recipient’s legal account name.
• A webhook URL configured to receive payout updates.

Step 1: Verify the recipient’s Interac email

Call the account-resolution endpoint before creating the payout.

This checks whether the email is registered for Interac Autodeposit and returns the name attached to the registered bank account.

POST /accounts/resolve

Request

 {
    "currency": "CAD",
    "type": "interac_etransfer",
    "interacEmail": "[email protected]"
  }

The currency must be CAD, and interacEmail must be a valid email address.

Autodeposit enabled

A successful response with autoDepositEnabled: true means the recipient can receive the payout automatically.

{
  "data": {
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "accountName": "John Barret",
    "autoDepositEnabled": true
  },
  "message": "Account resolve successful"
}

For example, if you send CAD 100 to [email protected], the money will be deposited into the Canadian bank account linked to that email.

Before continuing, show the returned accountName to your user and ask them to confirm that it belongs to the intended recipient.

Use the returned name as beneficiary.accountHolderName when creating the payout.

Autodeposit disabled

The resolution request may succeed while returning autoDepositEnabled: false.

{
  "data": {
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "accountName": null,
    "autoDepositEnabled": false
  },
  "message": "Account resolve successful"
}

This is not an API error. You can still create the payout by including beneficiary.securityQuestion and beneficiary.securityAnswer. The recipient will use the answer to claim the Interac transfer.

Step 2: Generate a quote for a cross-currency payout

Skip this step when both the source and destination currencies are CAD.

When the source currency differs from CAD, generate a quote before creating the payout. The quote calculates the conversion rate, applicable fee, source amount and CAD amount the
recipient will receive.

For example, generate a quote when funding the CAD payout from a KES wallet.

POST /quotes/generate

Request

{
  "business": "{{businessID}}",
  "sourceCurrency": "KES",
  "destinationCurrency": "CAD",
  "amount": 10000,
  "action": "send",
  "transactionType": "disbursement",
  "paymentDestination": "bank_account",
  "paymentScheme": "interac",
  "beneficiaryType": "individual"
}

Because the action is send, the amount represents the amount being sent from the source wallet. In this example, the merchant wants to fund the payout with KES 10,000.

Response

The exact converted amounts and rate will depend on the quote generated at request time.

{
  "data": {
    "sourceCurrency": "KES",
    "destinationCurrency": "CAD",
    "sourceAmount": 10000,
    "destinationAmount": 100,
    "amountToCharge": 10000,
    "amountToReceive": 100,
    "rate": 0.01,
    "fee": 0,
    "reference": "b862026b-c15c-46b1-b1d4-f584f80b53ea",
    "expireAt": "2026-09-13T21:30:00.000Z"
  },
  "message": "Quote generated successfully"
}

The amounts above are illustrative.

Store data.reference. You will pass it as quoteReference when creating the payout.

The following values must agree with the generated quote:

• sourceCurrency
• destinationCurrency
• amount
• quoteReference

The payout amount must equal the quote’s sourceAmount. You must generate another quote if the existing quote expires or the payout amount changes.

Step 3: Create the payout

After checking the Autodeposit status, create the payout. If Autodeposit is disabled, include a security question and answer.

POST /disbursements/payouts

Use:

• CAD as the destination currency.
• bank_account as the payment destination.
• interac as the payment scheme.
• CA as the beneficiary country.
• The verified email as beneficiary.interacEmail.
• The resolved recipient name as beneficiary.accountHolderName.

The amount must be a JSON number, not a string.

Send CAD from a CAD wallet

A same-currency payout does not require a quote.

{
  "business": "{{businessID}}",
  "sourceCurrency": "CAD",
  "destinationCurrency": "CAD",
  "amount": 100,
  "description": "CAD payout via Interac",
  "paymentDestination": "bank_account",
  "paymentScheme": "interac",
  "customerReference": "cad-interac-001",
  "beneficiary": {
    "firstName": "John",
    "accountHolderName": "John Barret",
    "interacEmail": "[email protected]",
    "type": "individual",
    "country": "CA"
  }
}

In this example, CAD 100 is funded from the merchant’s CAD wallet and sent to the bank account registered to [email protected].

Send CAD from a KES wallet

A cross-currency payout must include the reference returned by the quote endpoint.

{
 "business": "{{businessID}}",
  "sourceCurrency": "KES",
  "destinationCurrency": "CAD",
  "amount": 10000,
  "quoteReference": "b862026b-c15c-46b1-b1d4-f584f80b53ea",
  "description": "KES to CAD payout via Interac",
  "paymentDestination": "bank_account",
  "paymentScheme": "interac",
  "customerReference": "kes-cad-interac-001",
  "beneficiary": {
    "firstName": "John",
    "accountHolderName": "John Barret",
    "interacEmail": "[email protected]",
    "type": "individual",
    "country": "CA"
  }
}

Here, amount is KES 10,000 because KES is the source currency. It must match the quote’s sourceAmount.

Send when Autodeposit is disabled

If autoDepositEnabled is false, include a security question and answer in the payout request. The recipient will use the answer to claim the Interac transfer.

{
  "business": "{{businessID}}",
  "sourceCurrency": "CAD",
  "destinationCurrency": "CAD",
  "amount": 100,
  "description": "CAD payout via Interac",
  "paymentDestination": "bank_account",
  "paymentScheme": "interac",
  "customerReference": "cad-interac-002",
  "beneficiary": {
    "firstName": "John",
    "accountHolderName": "John Barret",
    "interacEmail": "[email protected]",
    "securityQuestion": "What city did we meet in?",
    "securityAnswer": "Calgary",
    "type": "individual",
    "country": "CA"
  }
}

The security question must not exceed 40 characters. The answer must contain 3 to 25 characters and must not contain spaces. Send both fields together.

Important fields

Step 4: Handle the payout response

A successful request means Fincra has accepted the payout for processing. It does not necessarily mean the recipient has already received the money.

A response can look like this:

{
  "data": {
    "id": 12345,
    "reference": "FPY-8E74262E",
    "customerReference": "cad-interac-001",
    "status": "processing",
    "message": null,
    "isDocumentRequired": false,
    "documentsRequired": []
  },
  "message": "Payout initiated successfully."
}

Store both references:

• reference is the Fincra-generated payout reference.
• customerReference is the reference supplied by your application.

Use these references when reconciling the payout, investigating an issue or matching webhook events to your internal transaction.

Step 5: Track the final payout status

Payout processing is asynchronous. Use payout webhooks to determine whether the transfer eventually succeeds or fails.

A successful payout produces:

payout.successful

A failed payout produces:

payout.failed

A webhook contains the Fincra reference, your customer reference, the recipient, currencies, amounts, payment scheme and final status.

Example successful webhook excerpt:

{
  "event": "payout.successful",
  "data": {
    "id": 12345,
    "reference": "FPY-8E74262E",
    "customerReference": "cad-interac-001",
    "sourceCurrency": "CAD",
    "destinationCurrency": "CAD",
    "status": "successful",
    "amountCharged": 100,
    "amountReceived": 100,
    "paymentScheme": "interac",
    "paymentDestination": "bank_account",
    "recipient": {
      "name": "John Barret",
      "type": "individual",
      "interacEmail": "[email protected]"
    }
  }
}

Common integration errors

Autodeposit is disabled

The resolution request succeeds, but autoDepositEnabled is false. This is not an API error. Include beneficiary.securityQuestion and beneficiary.securityAnswer when creating
the payout.

Because accountName is null, collect the recipient’s legal account name and send it as beneficiary.accountHolderName.

The security question or answer is missing

Both fields are required when Autodeposit is disabled. Do not send only one of them.

The security question or answer is invalid

The security question must not exceed 40 characters. The answer must contain 3 to 25 characters and must not contain spaces.

Use only standard letters, numbers and punctuation. Do not use accented letters, emoji or line breaks.

The payout needs to be submitted again

Fincra does not store the security question and answer. Create a new payout request and include both fields again.

The quote reference is missing

This happens when you create a cross-currency payout without first generating a quote. Generate a new quote and include its reference as quoteReference.

The quote amount does not match the payout amount

The payout amount must equal the quote’s sourceAmount. Generate a new quote if the source amount changes.

The quote has expired

Generate another quote and use its new reference.

The beneficiary country is missing or incorrect

Use:

 "country": "CA"

The Interac email is missing or invalid

Provide the same valid email address used for the account-resolution check.