Overview

Sends a payout (withdrawal) request from the merchant system to Paramount. Payouts are deposited directly into the consumer's bank account. There are three methods of Interac payouts:

Verified Instant Payouts

This two-step method allows merchants to verify consumer bank account ownership before sending the payout request. The two steps required for this option are:

Use the Identity Verification API to retrieve the consumer's bank account details.
Process the payout using the INTERAC Payouts API and include the consumer's banking information that were retrieved by the Identity Verification API as described in step 1. In the account_number field of the payout request, pass the fiNumber, fiTransitNumber, and fiAccountNumber from the Identity Verification notification, as described in the account_number description in Payout Request parameters.

Instant Payouts to Bank Account Number

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Limited to Supported Financial Institutions Only
Payouts to bank account number is limited to participating financial institutions with INTERAC. See Payouts via ANR Supported Banks and Payout Request Parameters for more details.

Instant Payouts require the consumer's valid bank account number (account_number) to be included in the Payout Request parameters. The payout amount is immediately deposited directly into the consumer's bank account. If an incorrectly formatted account number is included in the request, error B018 is returned in the payout notification.

Payouts via INTERAC e-Transfer

If a bank account number (account_number) is not included in the payout request, the payout is sent via INTERAC e-Transfer:

Consumer has INTERAC auto-deposit enabled: the payout amount is deposited directly into the consumer's bank account. No security question or answer is used.
Consumer does not have auto-deposit enabled: the consumer must answer a security question to accept the transfer. You can either supply the question and answer yourself, or omit them and have Paramount generate them and notify the consumer by SMS or email. See INTERAC Payout Security Questions and Answers.

Payout Request

The payout request parameters identify the merchant and consumer and specify the details of the payout transaction. See Payouts API for request details.

Parameter	Description
merchant_id	The 8-character merchant account ID assigned by Paramount.
details	The encrypted request parameters described in Payout Request parameters.
iv	The HEX decimal of a random 128-bit initialization vector, which should be generated by a cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator.

Payout Request Parameters

The parameters included in a payout request are described in Payout Request parameters.

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Parameters are case sensitive.

Build and encode the request parameters in the application/x-www-form-urlencoded format.

details=merchant_id=TestMerchant&merchant_sub_id=0&merchant_user_id=CUSTOMER1&merchant_txn_num=1638830336525&txn_amount=10.00&txn_currency=CAD&first_name=Test&last_name=Customer&phone_number=+16476476477&merchant_customer_email=user%40domain.com&return_url=https%3A%2F%2F[www.paramountcommerce.com&extra_field_1=Test+Transaction](http://www.paramountcommerce.com&extra_field_1=Test+Transaction)

iv=8d77a05d256659fc362606f1d0483a51

merchant_id=TestMerchant

Encrypt the details URL encoded request parameter using cipher AES-256/CBC/PKCS5Padding.

details=64c4e3dbea201b2b80155376c04f8e7118a20ab745973cf487fc4892c8c6455a55738f25214e5b329bb907dd08510b7182079155a84087f1ec7c4685606c222481b20b106a72b7f960be1209f7fd4f3026fd852d6dba7b5d1c6dc655149a80891890849309a875ce1bbe02fa3dcf9208d4c7b940103e8dccbe011e49a6cb855568049ee5cf438a5babe5b30a112596d8da575bec71d30b5fe4126628aeae295aaf78b90444f515d6f5764e2ed32897467f758d952c503768eb1c8f19a069ff55d0633c966c60ecdc979652a99bea96d1e1e6f3126079cda8c323a357dfa5a162614f1959a110918a782a445ed565d0252212a4a5da2fdcc2c9bd907bb47aecaab6fad03d0627ce6629884e45ee83475678d68c0000d4a730bace0a0ad9e605c546a4310f06ae84f79df11eac5c3fce2f15d29c85d1e714e79762431bb0424bc70265079d8f7eeb2785e8220192a30016cb7d2ec220ca5cf769122c3c361408486522904a3b2bcbe6e49305b26bce5cf6c8c6858dcaf9bf9d3ef2db96101bbea4

See the Interac - Merchant encrypted request recipe for instructions to do the encryption.

Example Payout Request

details=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&iv=d77a05d256659fc362606f1d0483a51&merchant_id=TestMerchant

Merchants can refer to their INTERAC staging environment document for the specific merchant encryption key for their account.

Parameter	Type	Min Length	Max Length	Required	Description
merchant_id	String	8	8	Yes	The 8-character merchant account ID assigned by Paramount.
merchant_user_id	String	1	20	Yes	The merchant-assigned unique identifier for the consumer (end user) making this transaction. This value is case-sensitive and must be consistent across all transactions for the same user.
merchant_sub_id	String	0	3	No	The merchant account sub ID assigned by Paramount. This parameter is used to separate reporting and notifications for merchants who process transactions for multiple websites or need to separate their traffic for other reasons. Merchants who don't have sub accounts must enter 0 (zero).
merchant_txn_num	String	1	30	Yes	The unique merchant-assigned transaction number that identifies the payout.
txn_amount	Decimal	1	8	Yes	The payout amount. The amount must be between 0.01 and 100000.00. Note: Interac Payouts are capped at 25000.00
txn_currency	String	3	3	Yes	The uppercase 3-letter currency code (ISO 4217).
first_name	String	1	40	Conditional	The consumer's first name. Not required if business_name is present.
receiver_middle_name	String	0	30	No	The receiver's (consumer's) middle name.
last_name	String	1	40	Conditional	The consumer's last name. Not required if business_name is present.
business_name	String	1	255	Conditional	Name of the business receiving the payment. first_name and last_name are ignored if business name is present. business_name is not required if first_name & last_name are provided.
receiver_dob	String (YYYY-MM-DD)	10	10	Yes	The receiver's (consumer's) date of birth.
receiver_street	String	1	255	Yes	`The receiver's (consumer's) street address.
receiver_street2	String	0	255	No	The receiver's (consumer's) secondary address line.
receiver_city	String	1	255	Yes	The receiver's (consumer's) city.
receiver_province	String	1	30	Yes	The receiver's (consumer's) province or state.
receiver_postal_code	String	6	7	Yes	The receiver's (consumer's) postal code.
receiver_country	String (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)	2	2	Yes	The receiver's (consumer's) country code.
receiver_citizenship	String (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)	2	2	No	The receiver's (consumer's) citizenship.
account_created_on	String (YYYY-MM-DD)	10	10	No	The date the consumer's account was created on your platform.
phone_number	String	10	10	Yes	The consumer's mobile phone number associated with INTERAC at their bank. This is a 3-digit area code and 7-digit local phone number.
customer_email	String	1	50	Yes	The consumer's email address associated with INTERAC at their bank.
security_question	String	1	40	Conditional	Only used when `account_number` is not provided. A security question the consumer answers to accept the payout. Special characters and spaces allowed. Must be sent together with `security_answer` (both or neither); otherwise the request is rejected. Omit both to have Paramount generate the question and answer — in that case `qa_notification_channel` is required.
security_answer	String	6	25	Conditional	Only used when `account_number` is not provided. The answer to `security_question`. Minimum 6 characters. Special characters and spaces not allowed. Must be sent together with `security_question` (both or neither); otherwise the request is rejected. Omit both to have Paramount generate the question and answer — in that case `qa_notification_channel` is required.
qa_notification_channel	String			Conditional	Required when `account_number`, `security_question`, and `security_answer` are all omitted. Specifies how Paramount delivers the system-generated 6-digit answer to the consumer. Accepted Values: `sms` — sent to `phone_number` `email` — sent to `customer_email` Ignored when you supply `security_question` and `security_answer`, and ignored when `account_number` is provided (account-number routing takes priority). No notification is sent when the consumer has INTERAC auto-deposit enabled, because no security answer is needed to accept the payout.
originator_ip	String	2	45	Yes	The consumer's IP address used to initiate the transaction.
account_number	String	5	34	No	The consumer's bank account number, formatted as `xxx-xxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx`. The first 3 digits indicate the institution number, the next 5 digits indicate the transit number, and the remaining digits (up to 24) are the bank account number. The institution number should be one INTERAC's supported institution numbers. See Payouts via ANR Supported Banks for more details.
extra_field_1	String	0		No	This is a pass-through field and not recorded by Paramount. This field can be used by merchants who want an extra parameter sent back to them in the payment notification to uniquely identify the transaction or consumer.
sender_first_name	String	1	30	Conditional	The sender's first name. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).
sender_middle_name	String	0	30	No	The sender's middle name.
sender_last_name	String	1	30	Conditional	The sender's last name. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).
sender_dob	String (YYYY-MM-DD)	10	10	Conditional	The sender's date of birth. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).
sender_street	String	1	255	Conditional	The sender's street address. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).
sender_street2	String	0	255	No	The sender's secondary address line.
sender_city	String	1	255	Conditional	The sender's city. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).
sender_province	String	1	30	Conditional	The sender's province or state. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).
sender_postal_code	String	1	20	Conditional	The sender's postal or ZIP code. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).
sender_country	String (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)	2	2	Conditional	The sender's country code. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).
sender_citizenship	String (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)	2	2	No	The sender's citizenship.
sender_reference_number	String	1	255	Conditional	The sender's reference account number in your records. Required if enabled on your merchant account (e.g. remittance merchant).

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A "-" in the "Max Length" column represents infinite length (i.e., no maximum length for that field).

INTERAC Payout Security Questions and Answers

When a consumer does not have INTERAC auto-deposit enabled, their bank prompts them for a security answer before they can accept the payout. The security question and answer are optional in the payout request — you choose who supplies them:

Option	What you send	What happens
Merchant-supplied Q&A	`security_question` and `security_answer`	Your question and answer are attached to the e-Transfer. `qa_notification_channel` is ignored — you are responsible for communicating the answer to the consumer.
Paramount-generated Q&A	Neither `security_question` nor `security_answer`, plus `qa_notification_channel` set to `sms` or `email`	Paramount generates the question and a 6-digit answer, and sends the answer to the consumer's `phone_number` (`sms`) or `customer_email` (`email`) so they can accept the transfer.

security_question and security_answer must be sent together — sending only one rejects the request.

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When security Q&A is not used

Account-number payouts: if you provide account_number, the payout uses account-number routing. security_question, security_answer, and qa_notification_channel are all ignored.

Auto-deposit consumers: if the consumer has INTERAC auto-deposit enabled, the funds deposit automatically. No security answer is required and no notification is sent.

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Requirements for merchant-supplied questions and answers

Security questions must be between 6 and 40 characters. Answers must be between 6 and 25 characters.

Recommended security questions and answers are included in the INTERAC Brand Requirements page.

Payout Response

Immediately after the payout request is received by Paramount, a payout response is sent to the merchant system to confirm that the request was received.

Payout Response Parameters

The payout response includes the transaction status (pending) and any applicable payout request errors.

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Information about the final outcome of the payout request isn't included in the payout response but is provided in the payout notification.

Parameter	Type	Size	Required	Description
txn_num	String	30	Yes	The unique transaction number created by Paramount.
merchant_txn_num	String	30	Yes	The unique merchant-assigned transaction number that identifies the payout.
txn_amount	Decimal	(7.2)	Yes	The payout amount. The amount must be between 1.00 and 99999.99.
txn_fee	Decimal	(6.2)	Yes	The transaction fee payable by the merchant.
txn_status	String	1	Yes	The status of the payout request. P*: Pending
routing_decision	String		Conditional	If EFT routing is enabled on your account, it provides the routing decision for an Interac Payout. interac: Payout was routed through the Interac rail. EFT: Payout was routed through the EFT rail.
routing_decision_reason	String		Conditional	If EFT routing is enabled on your account, it provides the routing decision reason for an Interac Payout. Routing decision reason will be provided if the `routing_decision` was `EFT`. `unsupported_institution`: If the provided bank account number is not a supported bank. `amount_limit`: If the payout amount exceeds $25,000.
error_code	String	4	No	If the payout request fails, the error code is included in the payout response. See Payout Request Error Codes.
interac_reference_num	String	16	No	If enabled on your account, the reference number used to track and identify individual Interac transactions

Example Payout Response

{
  "txn_num": "20250320120107694724062313",
  "merchant_txn_num": "usr_12345",
  "txn_amount": "30.00",
  "txn_fee": "0.0",
  "txn_status": "P",
  "routing_decision": "EFT",
  "routing_decision_reason": "unsupported_institution",
  "error_code": null
}

Payout Notification

After Paramount processes the payout request, it sends a payout notification to the transaction notification URL specified by the merchant during the system integration.

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When Paramount receives a payment request, we immediately forward these requests to Interac through our financial institutions. However, it's important to note that Interac does not guarantee a specific expiration time; instead, it operates based on the number of seconds following the request's creation, which Paramount has set to 7 days (604800 seconds). While we strive for timely updates, we cannot assure that a payment will expire precisely at the moment of creation, although it should typically occur within a few seconds.

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EFT Routed Payout Notifications
Payout notifications for EFT routed transactions are typically sent within 24 hours of submission on business days. Transactions submitted on weekends or Canadian statutory holidays will have notifications sent on the next business day.
EFT settlement timing may vary based on cut-off times, transaction type, and the recipient’s financial institution. While same-day settlement is possible, it’s not guaranteed. Notifications reflect processing status, not final settlement.

Payout Notification Parameters

The payout notification includes the same parameters included in the payout request, plus the final transaction status and any applicable error codes.

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The parameters included in the payout notification may not be in the same order shown in this document.

Parameter	Type	Size	Required	Description
user_id	String	30	No	The consumer user ID used in the Paramount system. For failed transactions, this field is blank.
txn_num	String	30	Yes	The unique transaction number created by Paramount.
txn_type	String	1	Yes	The transaction type. F: Payout
merchant_id	String	8	Yes	The 8-character merchant account ID assigned by Paramount.
merchant_user_id	String	20	Yes	The merchant-assigned unique consumer user ID.
merchant_txn_num	String	30	Yes	The unique merchant-assigned transaction number that identifies the payout.
txn_amount	Decimal	(7.2)	Yes	The payout amount. The amount must be between 1.00 and 99999.99.
txn_currency	String	3	Yes	CAD
txn_fee	Decimal	(6.2)	Yes	The transaction fee payable by the merchant.
txn_status	String	1	Yes	The status of the payout request. S: Successful R: Rejected
error_code	String	4	No	If the payout fails, the error code is included in the payout notification. See Payout Result Error Codes.

Example Payout Notification

{
    "txn_num": "20210218134422846368000000",
    "merchant_user_id": "usr_12345",
    "txn_fee": "0.00",
    "txn_currency": "CAD",
    "user_id": "1613383943978-PSGEO06F",
    "txn_type": "F",
    "merchant_txn_num": "abc12345",
    "error_code": "",
    "merchant_id": "SmplMcht",
    "txn_amount": "40.00",
    "txn_status": "S"
}

Payout Errors

If a payout can't be completed successfully, there are two types of codes that may be included in the error_code field in the payout notification: Payout request error codes and Payout result error codes.

Payout Request Error Codes

Payout request errors are caused by missing or invalid parameters in the request. These error codes begin with B.

Code	Description
B001	Invalid or missing merchant account ID (merchant_id).
B002	Generic error.
B003	Invalid merchant sub account ID (merchant_sub_id).
B004	Invalid or missing merchant assigned consumer user ID (merchant_user_id).
B005	Invalid or missing merchant transaction number (merchant_txn_num).
B006	Duplicate merchant transaction number (merchant_txn_num).
B007	Invalid or missing transaction amount (txn_amt).
B008	Invalid or missing currency code (txn_currency).
B009	Invalid or missing first name (first_name).
B010	Invalid or missing last name (last_name).
B011	Invalid or missing consumer email (customer_email).
B012	Invalid or missing phone number (phone_number).
B013	Invalid security question (`security_question`), or it was sent without `security_answer`.
B014	Invalid security answer (`security_answer`), or it was sent without `security_question`.
B015	Invalid or missing originator IP (originator_ip).
B016	The consumer withdrawal transaction exceeds the per transaction limit.
B017	The transaction is declined to avoid overdraft from the merchant account. The INTERAC merchant account balance must be sufficient to cover the withdrawal amount.
B018	Invalid account number (account_number).
B019	Institution is not supported in account number (account_number).
B020	Invalid or missing Receiver Date of Birth (`receiver_dob`).
B021	Invalid Receiver Middle Name (`receiver_middle_name`).
B022	Invalid or missing Receiver Street Address (`receiver_street`).
B023	Invalid Receiver Street Address (`receiver_street2`).
B024	Invalid or missing Receiver City (`receiver_city`).
B025	Invalid or missing Receiver Province (`receiver_province`).
B026	Invalid or missing Receiver Postal Code (`receiver_postal_code`).
B027	Invalid or missing Receiver Country (`receiver_country`).
B028	Invalid Receiver Citizenship (`receiver_citizenship`).
B029	Invalid or missing Sender Date of Birth (`sender_dob`).
B030	Invalid or missing Sender First Name (`sender_first_name`).
B031	Invalid Sender Moddle Name (`sender_middle_name`).
B032	Invalid or missing Sender Last Name (`sender_last_name`).
B033	Invalid or missing Sender Street Address (`sender_street`).
B034	Invalid Sender Street Address (`sender_street2`).
B035	Invalid or missing Sender City (`sender_city`).
B036	Invalid or missing Sender Province (`sender_province`).
B037	Invalid or missing Sender Postal Code (`sender_postal_code`).
B038	Invalid or missing Sender Country (`sender_country`).
B039	Invalid Sender Citizenship (`sender_citizenship`).
B040	Invalid or missing Sender Reference Account Number (`sender_reference_number`).
B041	Invalid Account Created On Date (`account_created_on`).
B042	Invalid or missing QA notification channel (`qa_notification_channel`). Required when `account_number`, `security_question`, and `security_answer` are all omitted.
B043	Invalid business name (business_name)

Payout Result Error Codes

If a payout can't be completed successfully, the relevant error code is included in the payout notification.

Code	Definition
P001	Failed IP validation.
P002	Suspicious or fraudulent payment history by the consumer.
P003	Suspicious or negative information on the consumer identity.
P004	Suspicious or fraudulent information on the consumer device / IP address.
P005	Negative information on the bank account.
P006	Generic system error.
P007	Risk management error.
P008	Invalid INTERAC phone number provided by the consumer.
P009	Invalid INTERAC email provided by the consumer.
P010	Returned in any of these scenarios: User failed to accept the withdrawal transaction Bank account number used is either invalid, wrong, or closed/locked. Email used either doesn't exist, is refusing emails, or has a full mailbox.
P011	Payout has auto-expired before the user could accept.