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Good morning. I would like to thank the Committee for the opportunity to speak to the study of Bill C‑29 - An Act to establish the Financial Crimes Agency and to make consequential amendments to certain Acts and regulations ("Bill C‑29" or "Bill")
My name is Hartland Elcock. I am an Assistant General Counsel and Vice President with the Canadian Bankers Association. With me, my colleague, Brent Mizzen, Senior Vice President, Payments and Digital. We are pleased to be here today to speak to Bill C-29.
The CBA is the voice of more than 60 banks operating in Canada, employing more than 300,000 Canadians, and helping to drive Canada’s economic growth and prosperity.
Our members welcome the tabling of the Bill and the creation of the Financial Crimes Agency ("FCA"). We support the goal of creating a leading enforcement agency to spearhead the fight against complex financial crimes in Canada. As highlighted in Financial Action Task Force’s ("FATF") recently released mutual evaluation, Canada needs to increase its efforts to detect, pursue and bring before the courts cases of money laundering related to high‑risk predicate offenses. Once established, this new organization promises to be a key tool for improving the demonstrable outcomes of Canada’s anti‑financial crime regime, including increased prosecutions of financial criminals, and to protect the safety, security, and well-being of our country.
Banks take the fight against financial crime seriously. They are among the most active reporting entities in Canada’s anti‑money laundering ("AML") regime, devoting resources to their AML programs, including their internal controls and employee training. Much of this investment focuses on continuous improvements to address the shifting landscape of compliance requirements and the evolving nature of risk. Their goal is to effectively deter, detect and report suspicious activity and to mitigate money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctions evasion.
Banks also play a leadership role in public‑private partnership ("PPP") projects with FINTRAC. One of these PPPs is Project Guardian, which is focused on identifying transactions or attempted transactions where there are reasonable grounds to suspect money laundering related to the fentanyl trafficking. This project led to FINTRAC operational alerts that highlight indicators of suspicious transactions for all reporting entities.
The FCA should reinforce these efforts. The FCA’s proposed focus on combatting complex financial crime, including money laundering, should help to ensure public sector resources remain dedicated to this priority, rather than being diverted to competing issues in the future as they emerge. Focus will also help to build specialized experience and capacity in this technical area – promising individuals a career in investigating financial crime will allow the FCA to recruit, train and retain specialized talent. Further, the FCA’s proposed ability to coordinate prosecutions and collaborate with relevant agencies in domestic and foreign jurisdictions are promising. These developments should all help to yield demonstrable results for Canadians.
To support the FCA and help translate financial intelligence to action, additional reforms and changes are needed. More specifically, we encourage the government to pursue the following:
- Ensure the FCA is influential in coordinating and priority‑setting within Canada’s response to financial crime
- Enhance public to private information sharing through targeted safe harbour and confidentiality legislative amendments to enhance financial intelligence and to increase focus on emerging risks
- Evolve Canada’s approach to financial crime intelligence gathering, including streamlining suspicious transaction reporting to better focus on risk
- Amend the Criminal Code to better address and deter the rapidly evolving financial crimes landscape, including modernizing offences and sentencing guidelines
- Embed prosecutors in the FCA to work alongside investigators and improve outcomes
- Work with the provinces to strengthening asset tracing, forfeiture, and recovery mechanisms to ensure criminal organizations cannot continue to benefit from the proceeds of financial crime
- Work with the provinces to expand the range of civil, administrative and alternative enforcement tools available to combat financial crime
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak to the Bill. My colleague and I look forward to your questions.