News
Canadian Regulators Outline Need to Scrutinize Domestic PEPs, FIFA Officials
By Colby Adams
printCanadian officials Monday previewed pending anti-money laundering rules for domestic officials and advised financial institutions to review customer accounts and prior transactions for links to world soccer's top governing body. Under legislation adopted in March 2014, financial institutions in Canada must identify bank accounts held for current and former domestic officials and more closely scrutinize those deemed high-risk in internal reviews. The law mandates similar scrutiny of accounts opened for their relatives and close associates. Canada's Department of Finance expects to publish regulations and implementation guidelines on the law within the year, according to Nicolas Burbidge, senior director of the...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
Recent amendments to Canada's anti-money laundering rules will require banks to more closely monitor the account activity of high-risk domestic politicians and implement new customer identification policies by next year.
Canada's primary financial regulator will focus its anti-money laundering efforts on ensuring that institutions implement plans to monitor high-risk clients and address other known compliance gaps, an official said Thursday.
Money services businesses in Quebec are struggling to deal with the impact of unprecedented provincial registration and anti-money laundering requirements that took effect this year, say analysts.
Financial institutions in Canada will be required to strengthen their due diligence controls and report all cross-border transactions, under draft rules proposed by the country's Department of Finance Wednesday.
Proposed amendments to Canada's primary anti-money laundering law would require banks and other companies to apply new prescriptive compliance controls in place of the risk-based policies currently used, say industry experts.
Since gaining penalty powers nearly three years ago, Canada's financial intelligence unit is shifting its focus from training financial institutions about compliance duties to penalizing those that haven't complied quickly enough.
In the world of financial compliance, Canada "talks a good game" but does little to enforce counter-terrorism financing and anti-money laundering regulations, according to Chris Mathers, a Toronto-based consultant.
The Canadian Department of Finance said the changes are designed to bring the countrys AML regime in line with the international standards set forth by the Financial Action Task Force.