The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue, today issued the below statement:
"Canada welcomes the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) Mutual Evaluation Report of Canada, an independent peer review assessment of the totality of Canada's anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and counter proliferation financing (AML/ATF/CPF) system. The report reflects the significant steps Canada has taken in recent years to combat financial crime, strengthen prevention and detection capabilities, enhance information sharing, and introduce new law enforcement tools.
"A strong, sustained AML/ATF/CPF regime helps protect Canadians against fraud, organized crime, sanctions evasion, and terrorist financing, all while inspiring confidence in the integrity of Canada's financial system and the agencies that comprise it.
"Canada's strong legal framework, operational improvements and hawkish pursuit of bad actors have helped upgrade Canada's FATF evaluation to the best outcome category available and among countries whose AML/ATF/CPF systems are assessed to be broadly effective and aligned with international standards.
"This outcome represents not only an improvement of Canada's last evaluation in 2016 but a validation of the work the government is undertaking with agencies and provinces together to better protect Canadians against fraud and the financial system against nefarious activity.
"The Mutual Evaluation Report highlights Canada's strong performance in risk assessment, domestic and international cooperation, the use of financial intelligence, and efforts to combat terrorist financing. It similarly identifies opportunities to build on Canada's existing advantages to strengthen Canada's regulatory supervision, beneficial ownership transparency, investigations, prosecutions, and asset recovery processes.
"Over the past year, the government has undertaken ambitious actions to ensure its AML/ATF/CPF regime remains among the strongest in the world. The report corroborates the efficacy of Canada's legal framework, the thoroughness of operational activities, and the alignment of domestic practices with best international standards.
"The Financial Crimes Agency will enhance Canada's capacity to combat serious and complex financial crime and improve enforcement outcomes. The government is also taking targeted action to address the growing criminal abuse of money services businesses to launder money, finance terrorism, and evade sanctions, including by banning crypto ATMs-a tool increasingly used by scammers to defraud victims of their hard-earned savings. These reforms build on the passage of Bill C-12 earlier this year, which included comprehensive reforms to strengthen AML/ATF supervision, compliance and enforcement.
"Finally, the government is also taking action to crack-down on the extortion that threatens the safety of our communities by: assigning dedicated financial intelligence liaison officers to work with local police; prioritizing financial intelligence resources to tackle extortion; launching a Countering Extortion Partnership with financial institutions, government, and law enforcement; and publishing strategic intelligence on how criminals move and hide extortion money.
"While the report validates the steps Canada has already taken, our commitment to meeting global standards and maintaining an effective and robust AML/ATF/CPF system remains unwavering. The government will review and action the recommendations made in the Mutual Evaluation Report to cement its leadership position in the fight against financial crime."
