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ARTICLE · 15 DECEMBER 2020

FINTRAC Guidance On Red Flag Indicators Associated With Virtual Currency Transactions

McCarthy Tétrault
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On December 2, 2020, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) published guidance on money laundering ("ML") and terrorist financing ("TF") red flag...

CanadaFinance and Banking
TechLex Blog
TechLex Blog
Ana Badour
Ana Badour
Shauvik Shah
Shauvik Shah
Eli Berg
Eli Berg
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On December 2, 2020, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) published guidance on money laundering ("ML") and terrorist financing ("TF") red flag indicators for virtual currency transactions. In Canada, businesses dealing in virtual currency are subject to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (Canada). Reporting entities are required to have effective internal systems for identifying, assessing and reporting suspicious transactions. These ML/TF red flag indicators provide useful guidance for businesses dealing in virtual currency to refine their anti-ML/TF compliance strategy.

The red flag indicators are comprised of factual characteristics, behaviors and patterns associated with suspicious financial transactions. FINTRAC developed the red flag indicators based on their analysis of ML/TF cases, suspicious transaction reports ("STR"), input from reporting entities and materials published by

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