Senior counsel and co-head of the firm's Payments and Cards practice Peter Aziz told The Globe and Mail that a coming evaluation of Canada by the Financial Action Task Force is part of the reason FinTRAC is becoming more active.
"The task force is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog group based in Paris, with 39 member countries, including Canada," Peter said.
As reported, Canada's anti-money laundering policies are set to be evaluated in December 2025 by the task force.
"We do see a recurring pattern where in the lead-up to an FATF review, FinTRAC and the government of Canada need to both enforce compliance with anti-money-laundering laws and be seen to be enforcing compliance," Peter said.
"This issuing of significant administrative monetary penalties is a way for FinTRAC to be seen to be administering the act. They may be of the view that FATF would expect this to be a measure of FinTRAC's effectiveness."
Peter explained that Canada maintains the highest standards of compliance with anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist financing protocols. Even so, it's important for the country and for all of Canada's banks to achieve a stellar compliance rating.
Meanwhile, Peter suspects FinTRAC will continue accelerating its enforcement activities as the task force review inches closer.
"We may see more administrative monetary penalties coming," he said.
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