How to Get Your MSB Licence From FINTRAC in Canada

Money services businesses (MSBs) in Canada are regulated by the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and its associated Regulations. The registration process for MSBs in Canada involves fulfilling specific obligations to help combat money laundering and terrorist activity financing. In this blog article, we will explain what steps you need to take in order to get your get msb licence from FINTRAC in Canada.

Get an MSB Licence from FINTRAC in Canada

The Canadian Government’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) is responsible for regulating MSBs and overseeing their compliance with the PCMLTFA and its regulations. This includes submitting suspicious transactions reports, conducting customer due diligence, and developing a compliance program. The agency also monitors and tracks MSB activities.

In an effort to prevent the influx of criminal funds into the country, Fintrac requires banks, real estate companies, mortgage brokers and thousands of other businesses to submit suspicious transactions or large sums of cash to their national registry of reports. These reports are disseminated to law enforcement agencies across the country, which use them in investigations of everything from human trafficking to fentanyl dealers.

Prospective MSBs can register on the FINTRAC website, a process that ostensibly takes mere minutes and suggests a level of compliance and legitimacy. However, the surface-level approval masks deeper operational and compliance requirements that many registrants fail to meet. Specifically, a physical presence in Canada, a Canadian-based compliance officer and the ability to carry out customer due diligence. The latter involves screening against the world’s only dynamic global database of Sanctions and Watchlists, PEPs and Adverse Media.