Bank of Canada orders tip manager XTM to halt payments as B.C. restaurants’ money missing

The Bank of Canada announced on Tuesday that it has issued a temporary order to XTM Inc. to immediately cease performing any retail payment activities.

This comes after more people in the hospitality industry across B.C. are coming forward about tips disappearing from the third-party program that manages them.

XTM provides a payment service for restaurant owners to gather and distribute tips to staff using pre-paid cards through a platform called Everyday, previously called AnyDay.

In early February, members of B.C.’s hospitality industry started reporting that the company stopped distributing money and some were missing thousands of dollars.

Eric Griffith, owner of Alta Bistro and Alpha Cafe in Whistler, told Global News they were missing $4,500.

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Matthew Upton, one of the owners of The Broken Seal restaurant in Squamish, told Global News they are missing $12,000.

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Dan Webster with Container Brewing in East Vancouver said they are missing $3,100.

The Bank of Canada said in a statement that the order applies to XTM and its affiliated entities and “prohibits XTM or its affiliates from conducting any transactions or withdrawals from accounts associated with the AnyDay platform.

“The Bank issued this order under section 94 (4) of the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA). The Bank has serious concerns that XTM failed to safeguard client funds in its possession and has reason to believe that allowing XTM to continue to perform retail payment activities could be prejudicial to the public’s interest.”

CEO of Toronto-based XTM, Marilyn Schaffer, did not answer multiple emails from Global News last week about what happened to the funds from the B.C. restaurants and when merchants might get their money back.