Dozens of B.C. restaurants have reported millions of dollars missing from a Canadian tip-pooling software platform, according to the head of an industry association.

Disappearing tips: In an interview with The Logic, British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association CEO Ian Tostenson said complaints have been pouring in from clients of Everyday Payments, which offers software that automatically calculates tips, pools them in a digital wallet and pays them out to staff. Money has disappeared from the digital wallets without explanation, putting significant strain on restaurants that must now find funds from other sources to tip out their employees, Tostenson said: “They’ve really been put in a bad situation.”

Global News first reported the news. Online posts suggest the issue extends to Canadian hospitality businesses outside B.C. as well. 

A transition period: Everyday Payments is a jointly owned subsidiary of two Canadian fintechs—Edmonton’s Everyday People Financial and Toronto’s XTM. In October, the companies announced they would create the subsidiary to operate XTM’s Canadian card and digital wallet programs. In January, the companies said they had transitioned more than a hundred thousand members to Everyday Payments’ virtual wallets.

In a release last February, XTM said it processes several hundreds of millions of dollars in annual payment volume for hospitality businesses in the U.S. and Canada. In a December filing, the company noted it had an accumulated deficit of $71 million as of Sept. 30, 2025, warning its  financial condition “may cast significant doubt over the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern.”

XTM and Everyday Payments did not respond to requests for comment.

A litmus test: The Bank of Canada’s new oversight regime for payments companies is designed to address situations like this. Starting in November 2024, all non-bank businesses that make money from payment services are required to register with the institution and follow rules designed to safeguard against company failures, hacks and other risks. Previously, consumer legislation around fees and lending covered some of these companies’ activities, but there was no central oversight body, putting customer funds at risk in the event of a collapse. In 2024, the failure of American fintech Synapse locked more than 100,000 customers out of US$265 million in deposits.

XTM is a registered payment service provider, according to the Bank of Canada’s online records. Everyday People Financial has applied to be one, but has not yet been approved. On Feb. 2, XTM announced Everyday Payments had started the registration process, but issued a “clarification” two days later stating that the jointly owned subsidiary isn’t required to register.

Akim Thibouthot, a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada, said the organization is “aware of these concerns, and we are looking into the matter.” She said the institution can’t comment on specific cases, but provided a link to the enforcement tools at its disposal, which range from warning letters to monetary penalties and court orders.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from the Bank of Canada.