RBC fined $7.5M after Fintrac says bank failed to report suspicious transactions
Canada’s financial intelligence agency has levied a $7.4-million penalty against the Royal Bank of Canada for non-compliance with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures.
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada said Tuesday the violations include failing to submit suspicious transaction reports where there were reasonable grounds to suspect ties to a money laundering offence.
The agency, known as Fintrac, tries to pinpoint money linked to illicit activities by electronically sifting millions of pieces of information each year from banks, insurance companies, money services businesses and others.
It then discloses intelligence to police and other law-enforcement agencies about the suspected cases.
The $7,475,000 fine announced Tuesday against the Royal Bank is the largest ever imposed by the agency.
Fintrac said the penalty was handed out early last month after violations were found during the course of a compliance examination in 2022.
It said that out of 130 case files it reviewed, the Royal Bank failed to submit 16 suspicious transaction reports, when there were reasonable grounds to suspect dealings were related to an attempted or actual money laundering or terrorist financing offence.
These included instances where the bank was served with production orders on clients but failed to escalate or refer the files for the purpose of determining whether a suspicious transaction report should be submitted to Fintrac.
In instances related to fraud, transaction reports were not sent to Fintrac despite the presence of indicators supporting reasonable grounds to suspect commission of an offence.
The agency also found the bank failed to provide information in the prescribed form in
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