The Financial Crime Coordination Centre (FC3)
Date: May 7th, 2021
Classification: Unclassified
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch/Agency: NSPD – FC3
Proposed Response:
- As part of our Government’s commitment to strengthening Canada’s anti-money laundering capacity, Budget 2019 allocated $24 million over five years to create a five-year pilot initiative to bring together experts from across government to identify and address significant money laundering and financial crime threats.
- The pilot was established within Public Safety Canada in 2019, and commenced operations as the Financial Crime Coordination Centre (FC3) in April 2021.
- FC3’s mandate is to actively coordinate support to anti-money laundering enforcement partners at all levels of government in Canada. This includes working with departments and agencies federal, provincial, and municipal levels to more effectively combat money laundering and financial crime.
- To help enhance coordination across key operational partners, FC3 includes experts from across the federal government.
- The Centre has three key support functions under its mandate:
- Supporting policy and legislative efforts to assist enforcement partners in responding to money laundering;
- Providing opportunities to operational partners to enhance their knowledge, skills and expertise to effectively detect, prevent, and deter financial crime; and
- Providing federal and regional partners with the additional coordination support necessary to successfully respond to financial crime threats.
- Together with investments in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency, the Financial Crime Coordination Centre represents an important step in our Government’s continued commitment to combat money laundering and financial crime.
Financial Implications:
- The Centre requires access to the remainder of the funding allocated through Budget 2019 to continue its operations for the remainder of the pilot phase.
- Total required funding is estimated at $17.4M (including GST/HST of $0.7M). Of this, $15.2M is to be accessed through Supplementary Estimates A, and the remainder from existing reference levels.
Background:
Budget 2019 allocated $24 million over five years to establish the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Action, Coordination, and Enforcement (ACE) Team within Public Safety Canada (PS). The ACE team is a five-year pilot project to bring together dedicated experts from across government departments and agencies, including law enforcement, to strengthen inter-agency coordination and cooperation and to identify and address significant money laundering and financial crime threats.
The pilot initiative is part of Canada’s AML and Anti-Terrorist Financing (ATF) Regime, which is the main framework for addressing money laundering in Canada. The five year pilot is divided into a design and operational phase.
The design phase was led by PS in fall 2019 and focused on developing a plan to strengthen inter-agency coordination, intelligence sharing, analysis, case assessment and triage in support of more effective money laundering investigations and prosecution. As part of its preparations for the operational phase, the ACE Team pilot initiative was renamed the Financial Crime Coordination Centre (FC3).
In its current operational phase, FC3 is focusing its efforts on three key initiatives: supporting operationally-focused anti-money laundering policy initiatives; enhancing knowledge, skills and expertise across agencies; and strengthening federal-regional coordination.
As part of its legislative and policy support function, FC3 will provide advice to operational partners on measures that can reduce existing strategic barriers to money laundering investigations and prosecutions. FC3 also intends to increase the strategic knowledge, skills, and capabilities of AML operational partners by providing training and educational opportunities through the development of a ‘Knowledge Hub’ and through the introduction of an annual large-scale government AML conference. The Centre will also be exploring ways to improve on existing mechanisms for federal-provincial coordination, and facilitate AML partners in accessing support services. FC3 remains committed to achieving these objectives, while ensuring that law enforcement maintains the operational independence and autonomy necessary to bring in the partners they deem relevant to the context of their enforcement efforts.
The FC3 Team’s project implementation phase will continue to be hosted by PS in the National Capital Region, and as the host agency PS will remain accountable for the overall project. The Centre is structured within Public Safety’s National and Cyber Security Branch and operates within the National Security Policy Directorate (NSPD). NSPD positions the future FC3 to effectively engage with national security colleagues on Terrorist Financing Threats which will be considered as a part of the implementation/operational phase.
FC3 commenced its operational phase as of April 2021, which is planned to continue for the remainder of the pilot period. FC3 is currently comprised of 11 FTEs and plans to expand to approximately 20-25 FTEs by the end of its operational phase. Based on the results of the FC3 pilot, PS will explore options for providing longer-term support to anti-money laundering enforcement partners.
Financial Implications
The total funding required for the FC3 operational phase is: $17.4M (including GST/HST of $0.7M). Of this amount, $4.8M (not including GST/HST) in 2021-22, $6.0M (not including GST/HST) in 2022-23, and $5.9M (not including GST/HST) in 2023-24, for a total of $16.7M. These amounts consist of $1.5M unspent reprofiled funds from last year and $15.2M of funds form the fiscal framework.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Vanessa Sima, Manager, 613-617-7512
Approved by: Dominic Rochon, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, 613-990-4976
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