Federal anti-money laundering agency, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), has sanctioned a money services business in Niagara Falls, Ont. for violations uncovered in a compliance exam.
FINTRAC imposed a $70,537.50 administrative monetary penalty on a numbered company, which operates as Global Currency Exchange, for six breaches of the AML rules. Those include five violations the agency deemed to be “serious,” along with one minor violation.
Among other things, FINTRAC found that the company didn’t have written policies to ensure compliance with the majority of its AML requirements, including lack of procedures for documenting its filings with FINTRAC, and compliance with know-your-client (KYC) requirements, and ministerial directives.
It also found that the firm didn’t adequately assess money laundering risks by failing to establish risk assessment processes for clients and other business relationships; that it didn’t develop a written compliance training program for employees, instead providing staff with informal verbal training on meeting their AML obligations; and, that it didn’t implement the required review of these policies and procedures.
Finally, the company also failed to provide FINTRAC with requested data on certain foreign exchange transactions, it noted.