Parliamentary Committee Notes: Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) Mandate

Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) Mandate

As Canada's financial intelligence unit, FINTRAC’s mandate is to facilitate the detection, prevention and deterrence of money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities, while ensuring the protection of personal information under its control.

FINTRAC is one of 13 federal departments and agencies that play a key role in Canada’s Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regime. The Centre is an administrative financial intelligence unit and not a law enforcement or investigative agency. It does not have the authority to freeze or seize funds, or cancel or delay transactions.

FINTRAC’s mandate is to ensure the compliance of businesses subject to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and associated Regulations, and to generate actionable financial intelligence for police, law enforcement and national security agencies to assist in the investigation of money laundering and terrorist activity financing offences or threats to the security of Canada.

As part of their obligations, businesses subject to the Act are required to establish a compliance program, identify clients, keep records and report certain types of financial transactions to FINTRAC, including international electronic funds transfers, large virtual currency transactions, large cash transactions and suspicious transactions.

These reports are analyzed and assessed alongside the other reports and information that FINTRAC receives. When, on the basis of its analysis and assessment, FINTRAC has reasonable grounds to suspect that financial intelligence would be relevant to investigating or prosecuting a money laundering offence or a terrorist activity financing offence, or would be relevant to threats to the security of Canada, the Centre generates a financial intelligence disclosure for Canada’s police, law enforcement and national security agencies.

In 2020-21, FINTRAC provided 2,046 disclosures of actionable financial intelligence in support of investigations related to money laundering, terrorist activity financing and threats to the security of Canada. Since becoming operational in 2001, the Centre has provided more than 22,000 financial intelligence disclosures to Canada's police, law enforcement and national security agencies.

Last year, FINTRAC’s financial intelligence contributed to 376 major, resource intensive investigations, and many hundreds of other individual investigations at the municipal, provincial and federal levels across the country.

Under subsection 55(1) of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, FINTRAC is prohibited from discussing any information that it may have received or financial intelligence that it may have disclosed to police, law enforcement and national security agencies.

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