Regulators are cracking down on money laundering, and financial services firms must step up their compliance and reporting efforts in this area, representatives from FINTRAC said on Wednesday.

Jeanne Flemming, director of FINTRAC — the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada — said financial services firms have a vital role to play in alerting regulators to suspicious transactions that they see.

“You have a critical role to play,” she told industry firms at the Canadian Institute’s Annual Forum on Anti-Money Laundering.

Flemming explained that financial services firms and employees are at the forefront of detecting and deterring the financial transactions that can facilitate the activities of organized crime groups.

“It’s you who can do something about this — you can actually make it more difficult for these criminal enterprises to operate.”

FINTRAC was established 10 years ago, when legislation made it mandatory for firms to report suspicious transactions. But firms are still not providing the agency with all of the information that they should be, according to Michael Pawliw, senior compliance officer of the central region for FINTRAC.

“By this stage, we would have anticipated that we would be much further along,” he said.

In 2008, FINTRAC gained the authority to administer fines to firms that failed to comply with their reporting requirements. Since then, the agency has administered 15 penalties, and according to Flemming, it has been gentle in the use of this authority so far.

“We’ve been extremely gentle in the way we’ve been doing this, but as time goes on, as we expect systems to mature and so on, we will be less gentle,” she said.

Firms that fail to comply with the reporting regime also risk being publicly named for these failures. “It’s a reputational risk,” said Pawliw.

Flemming noted that the federal government has displayed a commitment to crack down on money laundering. In the most recent federal budget, FINTRAC’s operating budget was increased by $8 million, or 16%.

“It just shows the government’s commitment to this,” said Flemming. She said the new funding would help beef up the agency’s compliance regime to ensure firms are meeting the requirements.

Advisors and customer service representatives in the branches of financial services firms also have a role to play in detecting money laundering, a panel of industry members suggested at the conference.

Advisors’ responsibilities in this regard tie in with their know-your-client responsibilities. Particularly when a client is not a Canadian resident, and resides in a country with a high concentration of financial crime, the speakers said advisors should find out the primary source of funds that will be entering that account. If there is a sudden change in the amount or frequency of deposits, it may be necessary to inquire about the change.

“If the individual has established an ongoing relationship and there are routine deposits, that’s fine. But other deposits outside of that, I want to know what they are. Where did they come from?” said Stephen Harvey, chief anti-money laundering officer at CIBC.

Harvey suggested approaching the topic by mentioning the change in activity and asking the client whether they have any new needs from an account standpoint.

“It’s a more client-centric way of putting it,” he said.

You can also make it clear that you have an obligation to know your client. If the client still resists and appears to be hiding information, that could be a red flag, the speakers said.

IE