The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) on Wednesday issued an alert that aims to guard against the risk of exposing the Canadian financial system to the terrorist group, Daesh, in Iraq.

The alert from the anti-money laundering authority warns Canadian firms about 120 currency exchange houses that have been identified by the Central Bank of Iraq as being in territory that is accessible by Daesh. These Iraqi firms are considered at higher risk of exposing the legitimate financial system to transactions involving Daesh, and terrorist financing, the alert says.

The alert provides specific guidance to Canadian firms about these Iraqi firms, and, it calls on Canadian firms to file suspicious transaction reports, or attempted suspicious transaction reports, where these Iraqi firms are involved in transactions processed by Canadian firms, and they also have “reasonable grounds to suspect it relates to terrorism financing.”

FINTRAC has also provided information to Canadian firms that they should consider when attempting to identify terrorist financing-related suspicious transactions, or terrorist property.