The federal government is amending its anti-money laundering regulations to make a unique allowance for lawyers.

A new set of regulations to repeal provisions that subject the legal profession to the anti-money laundering legislation anti-terrorist financing rules will be published in the Canada Gazette, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions) Maurizio Bevilacqua announced today.

The government says that it intends to develop a new legislative and regulatory regime over the coming months that better takes into account the nature of the duties of legal counsel, in consultation with all interested parties. There has been some concern that the rules conflict with lawyer’s legal and ethical obligations to maintain client confidentiality.

Ottawa says that its decision to put in place a new regime for lawyers is based on a thorough review of the issues surrounding the application of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing requirements to legal counsel, and does not affect other financial intermediaries, which remain covered under the existing provisions.