The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) made 197 case disclosures during the fiscal 2004, involving $700 million in financial transactions suspected of being linked to criminal money laundering or terrorist activity financing, a significant increase over the previous year’s total of $460 million.
Within the $700 million, $70 million is suspected of being linked to terrorist activity financing and threats to the security of Canada.
The information comes from FINTRAC’s 2003-04 annual report tabled today in Parliament by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.
FINTRAC’s mandate is to assist in the detection, prevention and deterrence of money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities.
“Canada is making significant advances in detecting and deterring money laundering and terrorist activity financing with the result that it is now more difficult to launder money in Canada,” said FINTRAC director Horst Intscher, in a release.
To build on these results in the coming years, FINTRAC says it will continue to work closely with Canadian financial institutions and the many businesses that are on the frontline of Canada’s effort to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
Among the highlights mentioned in the report:
- 9.5 million transaction reports were received in fiscal 2003-2004, an increase from 2.2 million in the previous year;
FINTRAC made 160 new case disclosures of suspected money laundering, terrorist financing and other threats to the security of Canada, and provided 37 updates on cases that had been the subject of previous disclosures; - Total case disclosures involved over 12,800 financial transactions valued at approximately $700 million, an increase of $240 million over the previous year; and
- 48 case disclosures were related to suspected terrorist activity financing and other threats to the security of Canada. The total value of the financial transactions involved in these disclosures was $70 million.