Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) - Data Interface Operations and Connectivity Guide
Table of Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Version
- Version History
- Key Terms and Definitions
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Non-technical Connectivity Requirements
- 3. Technical Connectivity Requirements
- 4. General Transmission Information
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Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) - Data Interface Operations and Connectivity Guide [PDF - 325 KB]
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List of Abbreviations
- CESP
- Canada Education Savings Program
- ESDC
- Employment and Social Development Canada
- IP
- Internet Protocol
- ITS
- Interface Transaction Standards
- KMC
- Key Management Centre
- LDAP
- Lightweight Data Access Protocol
- LRA
- Local Registration Authority
- MSFT
- Managed Secure File Transfer
- PKI
- Public Key Infrastructure
- RDSP
- Registered Disability Savings Plan
- SSC
- Shared Services Canada
Version
Version Number: 2.0
Last update: August 30, 2026
Version History
Version: 1.0
- Date: July 11, 2008
- Description: Initial version
Version: 2.0
- Date: August 30, 2026
- Description: Complete update and overhaul.
Key Terms and Definitions
The following are definitions of terms used in this document:
Issuer
A trustee that is licensed or authorized to offer its services in Canada and who offers an RDSP to the public has ultimate responsibility for the administration of the RDSP which includes securing the approval of the Canada Revenue Agency for the particular RDSP specimen plan.
Agent
An organization that has entered into an agreement to act as an administrative agent for the RDSP Issuer. For the purpose of this document a Service Provider is not considered an Agent.
Service Provider
An organization that provides a service, on behalf of a financial organization, to compile and submit electronic transaction information to ESDC.
1. Introduction
An Issuer of the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) must report Canada Disability Savings Bond (Bond) and Canada Disability Savings Grant (Grant) applications and financial transactions to Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).
ESDC accepts and returns electronic reporting through a dedicated, secure Internet-based, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). No other means of information exchange is accepted by ESDC.
1.1 Purpose
The purpose of this document is to provide detailed information about how to set up secure encrypted bi-directional telecommunications operations between an Issuer and ESDC.
1.2 Scope
This document describes the nature of and mechanisms for the transmission of information between an Issuer and ESDC. The Data Interface Operations and Connectivity document provides the following information:
- How organizations connect and transmit information to ESDC
- When organizations send and receive information
- Who to contact for technical support concerning problems with information exchanges with ESDC
This document does not cover general business requirements of organizations managing RDSPs or business rules surrounding ESDC.
Business issues are covered in other documents which include the:
- Canada Disability Savings Act
- Income Tax Act
- Canada Disability Savings Regulations
- RDSP Interface Transaction Standards
- Issuer Agreement for the purposes of the exchange of information and the payment of the Grant and Bond
2. Non-technical Connectivity Requirements
This section outlines non-technical requirements that must be arranged by an Issuer or Agent to transmit files to ESDC.
2.1 PKI Subscription Basics
PKI certification facilitates the transmission of secure, encrypted, and authenticated electronic mail over the Internet. PKI encrypted media ensures that no sensitive Issuer or Agent information is exposed during transmission to or from ESDC. All PKI transmissions receive acknowledgement in both directions.
2.2 Key Players
Organization Business Contact: The Business Contact is the person responsible to inform ESDC of any organizational changes including all PKI granting/modifications related activities.
Certificate Custodian: The Custodian is the person that assumes responsibility for the protection of any information following its decryption and must also protect the certificate and the password.
Local Registration Authority (LRA): Provides assistance to the Certificate Custodian of the External Device Certificate on behalf of Shared Services Canada (SSC).
Guarantor: Provides assistance to the LRA in the form of validating the identity of the Certificate Custodian in person.
2.3 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Device Certificate
The PKI device certificate and Managed Secure File Transfer (MSFT) account set-up must be completed prior to submitting any data files to ESDC. To obtain or make changes to an External Device Certificate, the request must be made by the organization’s business contact by sending an email to ESDC. An External Device, Application, Group & Role Certificate Administration Form will be sent directly to the Certificate Custodian for completion to obtain a device certificate.
Completed form must be sent to ESDC authorized LRA for processing. Each organization is limited to two (2) External Device Certificates. One Certificate Custodian (user account) should be designated as primary, and the second Certificate Custodian as a back-up. Once the External Device Certificate becomes activated, reports already received through the primary certificate should be deleted. Reports not retrieved or deleted after 3 months will be cleared to reduce network congestion. The back-up account should be activated at least once a month to ensure that it is functioning properly.
If an organizational change occurs and a Certificate Custodian must be replaced, the organization’s business contact must advise ESDC that they wish to have the external device certificate revoked and name a replacement Certificate Custodian. The new Certificate Custodian must send the completed External Device Application, Group & Role Certificate Administration Form to ESDC for processing.
2.4 External Device Certificate Application Process
The LRA & Guarantor participates in the External Device Certificate application process in the following manner:
Certificate Custodian Initialization
The LRA and Guarantor are responsible for completing their respective sections of the External Device, Application, Group & Role Certificate Administration form. All Certificate Custodians must present two pieces of identification to the Guarantor.
Note: One piece must have a photograph, and both must include signatures and valid expiration dates. Once the Guarantor has verified the identity of the Certificate Custodian, they will complete and sign Section 4 of the form.
After receiving the completed form, the LRA will provide the Certificate Custodian with one half of the initialization codes (the authorization code) via video conference and the other half, (the reference number), will be sent by email from Key Management Centre (KMC). Both codes are necessary to activate the device and will become void after twelve (12) days.
Key Recovery
Key recovery is necessary when the Certificate Custodian:
- fails to recall their password
- when the profile is compromised due to loss of their personal computer
- when there is suspected unauthorized access
- when one’s common name changes
In order to request a new key, key recovery, or MSFT support the authorized business contact or Custodian must send their request by email to:
EDSC.NC.PCEE.TRANSFERT_SECURISE-SECURE_TRANSFER.CESP.NC.ESDC@ESDC-EDSC.GC.CA
The LRA will request KMC to set up the Certificate Custodian for recovery. The LRA will provide the new authorization code for key recovery via video conference and KMC will provide the reference code by email. Until key recovery is complete, Certificate Custodian cannot submit new files to ESDC or access the report files returned from them.
3. Technical Connectivity Requirements
This section outlines the technical requirements that an Issuer or Agent must fulfill to establish telecommunications with ESDC.
3.1 Managed Secure File Transfer (MSFT) Service
An Issuer or Agent must use MSFT software to send data to ESDC via the Internet. MSFT is Entrust enabled and is recognized by ESDC as a secure method of data encryption. MSFT is the only file transmission technology that ESDC accepts.
MSFT software is provided free to an Issuer or Agent by ESDC. MSFT software and installation instructions are sent to an Issuer or Agent by the LRA as part of the PKI subscription process, however, the PKI certification process must be completed prior to installation and use of MSFT. The reasons and benefits of using an MSFT service include the following:
- Data compression
- Non-repudiation (proof services)
- Simple execution
- Information protection
- Management and change tracking
3.2 Configuration Requirements
The MSFT Client works on any Windows or Linux computer equipped with the following:
- Pentium 166 MHz microprocessor or better
- At least 32 Mbytes of RAM
- At least 12 Mbytes of free disk space on the user’s hard disk for software
- At least 5 times the disk space estimated for data files (for example, 10MB file requires 50MB of free disk space to process through MSFT agent)
- Network Card or Dial-up Modem
Note: The MSFT-Client can be installed as a Java application (in UNIX environment), as a Windows Service or run as a Java Web Start (for MSFT-Client v2.3 only) from a web browser. The MSFT-Client, for all three, consists of the same Java code so the instructions for using it are the same regardless of the installation.
3.3 Network Requirements
Senders must have access to Internet service from the MSFT configured PC. Internet access enables the transmission of secure PKI transmission to the MSFT agent at ESDC.
Note: Response time and service availability depends on the quality of the local Internet service acquired by the Issuer or Agent.
3.3.1 Access to MFST Services
Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity must exist from the MSFT Agent PC to the MSFT service. If the Sender MSFT Agent is running behind any type of Firewall (application firewall, Router, etc.), the following ports must be open (outbound):
- TCP port 389 for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) connection. This port is used to connect to the LDAP servers.
- TCP port 829 for Authority portion of the PKI key management portion. Required for maintenance of the user security profile with the PKI server.
- TCP port 443 for Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer or HTTPS and TLS/SSL connections must be granted.
4. General Transmission Information
ESDC will receive information from an RDSP Issuer or Agent, in the electronic format defined by the specifications outlined in the current RDSP Interface Transaction Standards (ITS).
An Issuer will submit encrypted data representing transactions within an RDSP to ESDC. The data will be decoded by ESDC for processing. ESDC will return reports, indicating transaction events and associated errors, to an Issuer or Agent by the same encrypted method.
4.1 Industry Testing
An Issuer or Agent must submit data to ESDC Industry Testing Unit to be certified compliant with the current RDSP ITS specifications.
Until an Issuer or Agent test data is certified compliant, their production data will not be accepted by ESDC. This policy prevents format errors in Issuer or Agent data and increases data integrity.
The RDSP Industry Testing Guide will provide detailed information on the guidelines for Industry Testing.
4.2 Standard Production Runs
ESDC will receive files containing transaction information representing activities within an RDSP and process them monthly based on calendar year and processing period. A production run will typically be the monthly timeframe within which ESDC will process an Issuer or Agent data files.
4.3 Processing Period
An Issuer or Agent will report all RDSP activity that occurred during a processing period to ESDC by the production run cut off date. Processing periods, which will be similar to the Canada Education Savings Plan, will extend from the first day of the month to the last day of the same month. The cut off date for an Issuer or Agent to submit a data file for a production run will fall on the fourth business day following the processing period’s end date.
Example: The January 2026 production run has a processing period of December 1, 2026 to December 31, 2008. The production run cut off date for December is January 7, 2026.
Important: Any future transactions received in a file following the last day of the processing period will be rejected.
Example: A transaction dated January 3, 2026 received by ESDC on January 4, 2026 for the December 1 to 31, 2026 processing period will be rejected.
4.4 Report Timing
The ESDC system will use the date the file is received by the Government of Canada and the event date of the transaction to determine a beneficiary’s entitlement. Therefore, an Issuer or Agent should ensure that transactions which occur in a given processing period are reported to ESDC before the production run cut-off date for that particular processing period. Information contained in files received by the ESDC system, after the production run cutoff date, will be stored and processed in the next processing period unless the Issuer or Agent requests that the file be removed.
If transmission to ESDC is delayed due to an ESDC technical difficulty, deadline dates will be extended, and an Issuer or Agent will be notified via ListServ notification.
4.5 Monthly Processing
The ESDC system will process RDSP transactions to calculate the amount of Grant and/or Bond awarded by or owed to ESDC.
During processing there will be an order in which certain transactions will be processed. Non-financial transactions, which provide information on the RDSP contract, beneficiary and holder, will be processed first. Financial transactions (Record type “401”) such as Grant and Bond requests will be processed after the non-financial transactions. Please refer to the current RDSP ITS for details on record and transaction types.
4.6 Production Schedules
An Issuer or Agent transaction data will not be processed until after the production run cut off date. After the data is processed, payment of Grant and/or Bond to the Issuer or Agent typically will occur on the last business day of the month.
Production schedules for transaction processing and any other relevant information will be issued periodically by ESDC via ListServ notification.