Senior management and boards are increasingly acknowledging the threat of financial crime as a critical risk to their business that must be addressed. This has been exacerbated in the last 12 months through the impact of the pandemic as well as rising domestic and international tensions. Our financial crime compliance specialists, located in the UK, … Continue Reading
Senior management and boards are increasingly acknowledging the threat of financial crime as a critical risk to their business that must be addressed. This has been exacerbated in the last 12 months through the impact of the pandemic as well as rising domestic and international tensions. Norton Rose Fulbright’s financial crime compliance specialists, located in … Continue Reading
Senior management and boards are increasingly acknowledging the threat of financial crime as a critical risk to their business that must be addressed. This has been exacerbated in the last 12 months through the impact of the pandemic as well as rising domestic and international tensions. Norton Rose Fulbright’s financial crime compliance specialists, located in … Continue Reading
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global intergovernmental organization that sets standards and policies for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) recently issued a report on Virtual Assets Red Flag Indicators of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (the Report). According to the FATF, a virtual asset is a digital representation of value that can … Continue Reading
When an entity (Affected Entity) experiences a data breach incident (Breach Incident), it is instantly faced with a number of issues that it must address with urgency. Among such, an Affected Entity must manage crucial regulatory compliance obligations that may be triggered by the Breach Incident. The most obvious of these obligations arise under the … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has recently issued a ruling regarding the regulatory treatment of Limited Recourse Capital Notes (LRCNs) which are currently being adopted as new financial instruments by Canadian banks. An LRCN is a subordinated note issued by a federally regulated financial institution (FRFI) that is secured by preferred … Continue Reading
The Department of Finance Canada recently released the final amending regulations that amend the existing Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (Regulations). Our previous update on other aspects of the amendments can be found here. The Regulations attempt to bring Canada’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) recently addressed a letter to deposit taking institutions (DTIs), including domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) and small and medium-sized banks (SMSBs), regarding the use of Pillar II capital buffers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The key takeaways are below: Capital expectations framework for DTIs. The current DTIs … Continue Reading
In our earlier post, we discussed the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions’ (OSFI) newly proposed measures intended to support federally regulated financial institutions and improve the stability of the Canadian economy and financial system in the face of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. OSFI has recently published additional announcements for sector-specific measures … Continue Reading
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) recently provided guidance (the Guidance) to reporting entities in connection with their continuing obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Guidance, FINTRAC acknowledged that reporting entities may have to reassign and reprioritize their internal resources in response to the pandemic, which may in turn affect … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has announced measures intended to support federally regulated financial institutions (FRFIs) and improve the stability of the Canadian economy and financial system in response to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and current market conditions: Domestic Stability Buffer set to 1.00% of risk weighted assets. Originally, … Continue Reading
The eSports industry is on track to surpass $1 billion in revenue this year. Titans in this industry use different product-control strategies for eSports tournaments. For example, a category of publishers vertically integrate with their premier eSports titles and maintain complete licensing control. Another category gives third parties complete freedom to organize eSports tournaments with … Continue Reading
Further to our previous post which introduces the concept of open banking and how Canada is approaching it, the Department of Finance, through its Advisory Committee on Open Banking (the Committee), has completed its initial review (the First Phase Review) which focused on: (i) the ways in which open banking would provide meaningful benefits and … Continue Reading
The Office of Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) stated recently that it is in the process of revising its capital requirements for operational risk applicable to deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) to reflect the final Basel III revisions published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in December 2017. OSFI confirmed that the implementation of the revised … Continue Reading
Happy New Year to all our readers! The past year saw a marked shift in regulatory expectations for the anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist financing (ATF) regime in Canada. In this blog post, we provide a quick recap of the key regulatory developments in the Canadian AML/ATF regime over the past year. We also look … Continue Reading
FINTRAC to publicly name violators of anti-money laundering rules Recently, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) published certain changes to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) requiring FINTRAC to make public all administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) imposed. These changes are reflected in FINTRAC’s AMP policy (AMP … Continue Reading
The 2019 Budget includes a proposal to introduce legislation to implement a new retail payment oversight framework in order to regulate payment service providers (PSPs) in Canada. While the budget provides few details about the proposed regulatory framework, we expect that it will be based on a 2017 discussion paper released by the Department of … Continue Reading
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) recently released the final version of the regulations amending the Regulations to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (as amended, the Regulations). The Regulations govern anti-money laundering (AML) rules in Canada. The changes in the Regulations are quite substantial and, given … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has proposed revisions to Guideline A-10, the “Foreign Bank Branch Deposit Requirement”, (the Guideline), formerly known as the Capital Equivalency Deposit. The revisions to the Guidelines address regulatory standards for authorized foreign banks’ minimum deposit to be held in trust. The revisions include changes to the Guideline … Continue Reading
Starting June 13, 2019, private companies that are incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act (the “CBCA”) will have to establish a securities register detailing all “individuals with significant control” over the corporation (the “ISC Register”) in accordance with Bill C 86, the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2. The purpose of the ISC Register … Continue Reading
In the 2019 federal budget, the government has proposed new legislation to help implement a new retail payments oversight framework that will enable retail payment services providers (PSPs) to continue to offer innovation in services, while remaining reliable and safe. The global payments landscape is rapidly changing as innovative technologies are challenging traditional payments systems. … Continue Reading
Open banking is a safe and secure technology that allows consumers to enable banks to disseminate their information to third party services providers. As a concept, open banking is more developed in other countries such as the United Kingdom (the UK) and Australia. In Canada, the concept is steadily evolving and is still being deliberated … Continue Reading
Recently, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) announced the introduction of a set of tools (the Tools) aimed at supporting Canadian reporting entities (REs), including financial institutions, in meeting their obligations under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (the Act). The Tools include FINTRAC’s compliance framework, FINTRAC’s … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has issued proposed revisions (the Revisions) to certain chapters of the Liquidity Adequacy Requirements (LAR) guidelines. The LAR set out the framework that Canadian deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) must follow to mitigate the risk of a stressed environment leading to insufficient liquidity. The Revisions are a response … Continue Reading
