Toronto-based Questrade, Inc. was sanctioned by federal authorities over alleged violations of anti-money laundering rules, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) reports.

Last week, FINTRAC said that it imposed an administrative monetary penalty of $346,140 on the discount brokerage firm, back on October 19, 2011, for committing nine violations of the anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations.

It says that the firm was found to have a variety of deficiencies, including: failing to report a suspicious transaction; failing to develop a written compliance training program, and to take special measures for high risk activities; inadequate practices for determining client identity; and, failing to take reasonable measures to determine whether a person is a “politically exposed foreign person”.

FINTRAC says that it uses administrative monetary penalties to ensure compliance with the law, and to serve as a counterpart to existing criminal penalties. Public notice of these penalties is used to “promote awareness, encourage a change in compliance behaviour and demonstrate transparency,” it notes.

In 2013, FINTRAC revised the criteria for public notice, so that it announces penalties once all proceedings have ended, if one of three criteria is met: it involves a very serious violation; the penalty is more than $250,000; or, the case involves repeat significant non-compliance.