FACT CHECK: Did Canada’s Entire Banking System Recently Shut Down?

A post shared on Facebook claims Canada’s entire banking system shut down as part of a plan to “start on One Government banking system.”

Verdict: False

There is no evidence Canada’s banking system has been or will be shut down. A network issue caused a day-long outage in early July that affected some payment services but the issue has since been fixed.

Fact Check:

The July 14 Facebook post claims the entire banking system in Canada, a country of more than 38 million, has been shut down. “Y’all better start taking y’all money out these banks smh they already shut down Canada entire banking system this is their start on One Government banking system #ImJustTheMessenger,” reads the post.

There is no evidence to suggest the country’s banking system has been shut down. Check Your Fact found no such announcement on the website of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the country’s largest bank. There are likewise no credible news reports suggesting a controlled shutdown took place recently.

“This is not accurate,” Gillian McArdle, a spokesperson for RBC, told Check Your Fact via email. “From an RBC perspective, we are operational and actively serving our clients.” (RELATED: Image Claims To Show Young Boy Who Stole $75 Billion From A Swiss Bank)

Carole Saindon, a spokesperson for the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada, agreed with McArdle. “The information in the July 14 FaceBook post you reference is incorrect,” said Saindon in an email to Check Your Fact. ‘There has never been a significant system-wide service interruption affecting Canada’s banks.”

The claim may be related to a day-long telecommunications outage that occurred in Canada on July 8. The Canadian telecommunications company Rogers experienced a “network outage across both wireless and wireline services,” according to a FAQ on its website. The outage briefly caused “problems for payment systems, automated teller machines and phone connections in Canada,” Bloomberg reported.

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