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Canada’s Fintrac to Expand Relationships Abroad, Says Director
printCanada's top financial intelligence agency intends to work more closely with its counterparts abroad and investigators at home to identify money launderers, according to Gerald Cossette, the group's new director. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac) will work more aggressively to help boost the country's number of prosecutions based on anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorist financing data, said Cossette, who took over the directorship of the financial intelligence unit (FIU) in October. Cossette, who previously served as an associate deputy minister of foreign affairs, spoke with reporter Brian Monroe ahead of his appearance at the ACAMS...
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Canada's financial watchdogs outlined their expectations and priorities Monday, clarifying a policy that previously gave banks a warning one month in advance of pending regulatory examinations.
Canada's primary regulator of depository institutions is considering launching a thematic review of the anti-money laundering controls of offshore banking affiliates in bank secrecy jurisdictions, an official said Tuesday.
Canada's primary financial regulator will focus its anti-money laundering efforts on ensuring that institutions implement plans to monitor high-risk clients and address other known compliance gaps, an official said Thursday.
Canadian compliance officers at banks and non-bank institutions are bracing themselves for broad changes to their anti-money laundering obligations ahead of the country's next evaluation by an international watchdog group.
Financial institutions in Canada will be required to strengthen their due diligence controls and report all cross-border transactions, under draft rules proposed by the country's Department of Finance Wednesday.
Proposed amendments to Canada's primary anti-money laundering law would require banks and other companies to apply new prescriptive compliance controls in place of the risk-based policies currently used, say industry experts.
Disclosures by Canada's financial regulator of suspected money laundering and other crimes have more than tripled in recent years even as the number of suspicious transaction reports filed annually by banks has fallen.
Since gaining penalty powers nearly three years ago, Canada's financial intelligence unit is shifting its focus from training financial institutions about compliance duties to penalizing those that haven't complied quickly enough.
Canada's financial intelligence unit issued its largest monetary penalty to date in a week when U.S. bank regulators called on financial institutions to be more transparent in their cross-border transactions.
The United States and Canada will soon begin sharing more data on seized currency in an effort to crackdown on terrorist financing and other crimes, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.
Canada took its first step last month into fining financial institutions for anti-money laundering troubles, penalizing two money services business and prompting at least one of the companies to close.
In the world of financial compliance, Canada "talks a good game" but does little to enforce counter-terrorism financing and anti-money laundering regulations, according to Chris Mathers, a Toronto-based consultant.
Canadian authorities charged a Sri Lankan-born man with raising funds for a terrorist organization, marking the first time Canada has charged an individual with the crime.
The Canadian government is broadening the scope of its anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing reporting requirements in the real estate and casino industries in a bid to bring the country's regime in line with international standards.
The Canadian Department of Finance said the changes are designed to bring the countrys AML regime in line with the international standards set forth by the Financial Action Task Force.
In its first annual report, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada trumpets data showing a strong response by financial institutions and other businesses to the countrys new suspicious transaction reporting requirement.
Canada's financial intelligence unit, FINTRAC, will soon allow financial institutions that send at least five "Suspicious Transaction Reports" per week to file them by "batch" starting November 30th.