Financial Crime World

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Canada’s Comprehensive Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regime

Ottawa - Canada has a robust anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing (TF) regime in place to prevent, detect, and disrupt these illegal activities. The regime is designed to protect the integrity of the financial system, support national security, and combat criminal activity.

Reporting Entities and Mandatory Reporting System

The PCMLTFA requires reporting entities, including:

  • Financial institutions
  • Certain non-financial businesses and professions

to:

  • Identify their clients
  • Keep records
  • Establish an internal AML/ATF compliance program
  • Report suspicious transactions, large cross-border currency transfers, and other prescribed transactions

This mandatory reporting system helps to identify money laundering and terrorist financing risks and enables the government to take action against illegal activity.

Information Sharing Regime

The PCMLTFA establishes an information sharing regime where FINTRAC analyzes data submitted by reporting entities and disseminates the results to regime partners, including:

  • Law enforcement agencies
  • Other government agencies

This intelligence is used to support domestic and international investigations and prosecutions of money laundering and terrorist financing-related offenses.

Coordination and International Cooperation

Effective coordination among federal partners and international cooperation are crucial components of Canada’s AML/ATF regime. This includes:

  • The Advisory Committee on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, a public-private forum that provides a platform for discussion and collaboration between government officials and private sector representatives
  • Canada’s leadership role in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the G-7, the G-20, and other international organizations to advance AML/ATF standards and capacity-building efforts globally

Prevention and Detection

The second pillar of Canada’s regime focuses on preventing individuals from placing illicit proceeds or terrorist-related funds into the financial system. This includes:

  • Reporting entities implementing prevention and detection measures under the PCMLTFA
  • Regulators like FINTRAC and OSFI supervising compliance
  • Greater transparency of corporations and trusts contributing to preventing and detecting money laundering and terrorist financing

FINTRAC’s Role

As Canada’s financial intelligence unit, FINTRAC plays a key role in analyzing data and providing intelligence to support investigations and prosecutions. In 2019-20, FINTRAC made over 2,000 disclosures to regime partners, including cases related to:

  • Money laundering
  • Terrorist activity financing
  • Other threats to national security

Disruption

The final pillar of Canada’s regime focuses on disrupting money laundering and terrorist financing activities. This includes:

  • Regime partners conducting financial investigations and undertaking enforcement actions against individuals and organizations involved in these illegal activities
  • FINTRAC’s intelligence and analysis supporting these efforts

Overall, Canada’s comprehensive AML/ATF regime is designed to prevent, detect, and disrupt money laundering and terrorist financing activities, while also supporting national security and combating criminal activity.