I. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Profession: LSM, B.A., LL.B., M.A., D.Phil., D.D., F.R.S.C. Of the Bars of Ontario and Nova Scotia Chancellor's Professor and Professor of Law, Carleton University
• Pages: 78-81

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The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) was established on 5 July 2000⁴⁰⁸as an independent financial intelligence agency, whose objectives are the collection, analysis, and assessment of information in relation to money laundering. Although not directly involved in supervising or regulating banks and other financial institutions qua financial institutions, all financial institutions are required to report information to FINTRAC in relation to certain kinds of banking transactions. This requires disclosures about customers traditionally protected as confidential within the bank and customer relationship.

FINTRAC was established under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act⁴⁰⁹of 2000, which created a mandatory reporting system for certain prescribed transactions. That Act was the result of growing international attempts to track and sanction money launder-

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ing and criminal activities associated with money laundering, such as drug trafficking and terrorism.⁴¹⁰

In 1989, the G-7 leaders set up an intergovernmental body, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), to evaluate and develop recommendations for the enhancement and coordination of international efforts to combat money laundering. In 1990 FATF proposed forty recommendations, which were subsequently revised in 1996, and a number of countries, including Canada, considerably redrafted their pre-existing money laundering legislation⁴¹¹to incorporate these recommendations. In 1991, Parliament enacted the first Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act,⁴¹²but FATF still considered Canadian legislation to be too soft, and a new Act was passed in 2000. This legislation is the basis for the detection of money laundering today. The 2000 legislation was further expanded in December 2001 after the events of 9/11, and the act was symbolically renamed the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act.⁴¹³

Part 3 of this legislation establishes FINTRAC as an agency of the government of Canada for which the Minister of National Revenue is responsible.⁴¹⁴

The statutory objects are: (i) to act at arms length from law-enforcement agencies; (ii) to collect, analyze, assess, and disclose information in order to detect, prevent, and deter money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities; (iii) to protect personal information from unauthorized disclosure; (iv) to enhance public understanding of matters related to money laundering; and (v) to ensure compliance with the reporting requirements of the Act.⁴¹⁵

FINTRAC is headed by a...