December 28, 2023
Senior counsel and co-head of the firm's Payments and Cards practice Peter Aziz told The Globe and Mail that a coming evaluation of Canada by the Financial Action Task Force is part of the reason FinTRAC is becoming more active.
“The task force is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog group based in Paris, with 39 member countries, including Canada,” Peter said.
As reported, Canada’s anti-money laundering policies are set to be evaluated in December 2025 by the task force.
“We do see a recurring pattern where in the lead-up to an FATF review, FinTRAC and the government of Canada need to both enforce compliance with anti-money-laundering laws and be seen to be enforcing compliance,” Peter said.
“This issuing of significant administrative monetary penalties is a way for FinTRAC to be seen to be administering the act. They may be of the view that FATF would expect this to be a measure of FinTRAC’s effectiveness.”
Peter explained that Canada maintains the highest standards of compliance with anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist financing protocols. Even so, it’s important for the country and for all of Canada’s banks to achieve a stellar compliance rating.
Meanwhile, Peter suspects FinTRAC will continue accelerating its enforcement activities as the task force review inches closer.
“We may see more administrative monetary penalties coming,” he said.
You can read more about our Financial Services work on our practice page.
Press Contact
Richard Coombs | Senior Manager, Marketing
416.865.3815