Canada's AML/CTF regime sits under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) and its regulations, supervised by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC). Reporting entities — from money services businesses and credit unions to real estate brokerages and dealers in precious metals — must each maintain a compliance programme proportionate to the money laundering and terrorist financing risks their business actually faces.
In practice, FINTRAC expects a current risk assessment specific to the entity's clients, products, delivery channels and geography; customer identification and ongoing monitoring calibrated to that risk; timely large cash transaction reports (LCTRs) and suspicious transaction reports (STRs); a compliance officer with real authority; and a documented, tested compliance effectiveness review at the required interval. Examination findings increasingly turn on whether a programme demonstrably operates as written, not simply whether the policy exists.
We work directly with Alberta-based and wider Canadian reporting entities to close that gap — building or refreshing the risk assessment, strengthening client identification and monitoring procedures, preparing for a FINTRAC examination, and delivering the compliance effectiveness reviews the regulations require on a recurring basis.