FINTRAC's compliance framework
From: Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC)
FINTRAC's compliance program assists and assesses compliance with the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (the Act) and its Regulations.
Our guiding principles
- Transparency: FINTRAC provides information and makes our processes accessible to help you understand your obligations.
- Engagement: FINTRAC provides guidance and feedback through a broad range of engagement and outreach activities.
- Clarity: FINTRAC provides clear and concise information to help you meet your obligations.
Who must comply
Businesses that have obligations under the Act are:
- Accountants
- Agents of the Crown
- Armoured cars New as of July 1, 2024
- British Columbia notaries
- Casinos
- Dealers in precious metals and precious stones
- Financial entities
- Life insurance companies, brokers and agents
- Money services businesses
- Mortgage administrators, brokers and lenders New as of October 11, 2024
- Real estate brokers, sales representatives and developers
- Securities dealers
What are the key obligations
The obligations under the Act and associated regulations require you to have the following elements in place:
- Compliance program
- Know your client
- Transactions reporting
- Record keeping
- Money services business registration
Pillars of our compliance framework
Assistance
FINTRAC is committed to working with you to assist you in understanding and complying with the obligations. We provide assistance through a number of channels to help you implement an effective compliance program:
- Online publications
- Outreach and engagement
- Technical support
Means of assistance
Online publications
We provide pertinent online information, such as comprehensive guidance on your compliance obligations, an assessment manual that prepares you for a FINTRAC examination, and the operational alerts and briefs that guide you in identifying and reporting suspicious transactions to FINTRAC.
Outreach and engagement
We conduct outreach and engagement with various stakeholders, including industry associations and regulators, to explain obligations, provide updates, or discuss legislative and regulatory changes.
We also provide support through a Helpline (1-866-346-8722 option 4) and offer policy interpretation for specific questions.
Technical support
We provide further specialized support to address more technical questions you might have related to the Money services business registry or the electronic submission of reports to FINTRAC.
We also provide technical information and technology support through FINTRAC's Helpdesk (1-866-346-8722 option 3).
Assessment
FINTRAC fairly and objectively uses many different assessment tools to ensure that you are meeting your obligations:
- Desk or onsite examinations to assess your compliance program
- Monitoring of financial transaction reports you submitted to FINTRAC
- Validations to determine if you are subject to the Act
- Observation letters to highlight your improvements or program gaps
- Compliance assessment reports to assess your progress in implementing a compliance program
Examination process
1 - Planning
- We will contact you in advance.
- We will inform you of the areas that we will examine.
- We will send you a letter requesting detailed information.
2 - Conducting
- We hold an introductory interview with you.
- We review and assess your records, transactions and your processes.
- We conduct interviews with your employees.
- We hold an exit interview with you.
3 - Consolidating the findings
- We assess all facts provided to us during the examination.
- We share our findings and give you the opportunity to provide additional information if we proceed with a penalty.
- We send you a letter detailing our findings.
Enforcement
When needed, FINTRAC uses a variety of enforcement tools to address non-compliance situations:
- Compliance meetings to identify and discuss non-compliance gaps with you.
- Findings letters to identify specific areas that require attention.
- Action plans and follow-up examinations to assess if previous non-compliance has been addressed.
- Administrative monetary penalties (AMP) that may be issued in cases of serious or repeated non-compliance.
- Non-compliance disclosures that FINTRAC can provide to law enforcement in cases of extensive non-compliance.
Administrative monetary penalties process
1 - Non-compliance findings
- We will review and assess the non-compliance findings.
2 - Notice of violation
- We will explain your violations and the factors taken into account for the penalty calculation.
- We will inform you on the recourses available to you.
3 - Recourse
- You have the right to make representations to FINTRAC's Director and CEO for a review of the Notice of violation and the penalty amount.
- You also have the right to appeal the Director and CEO's decision to the Federal Court.
4 - Publication
- Details of your AMP, including your name, will be subject to publication.
- Date Modified: