Canada

TECHNICAL COMPLIANCE ANNEX
Criterion 25.3— There is no obligation on trustees to disclose their status without being prompted,
but under the PCMLFTR, FIs are required to determine whether a customer is acting on behalf of
someone else, to establish the control and ownership structure of legal entities they are providing
services to, and to obtain the names and addresses of all trustees, known beneficiaries and settlors.
Criterion 25.4— There is no prohibition under Canadian law for trustees to provide trust-related
information to competent authorities, except in the case of lawyers where legal privilege may
prevent authorities from accessing such information.
Criterion 25.5— Where there are suspicions of a crime, LEAs may deploy a wide range of
investigative measures to obtain, compel the production of, or seize relevant information from any
trustee, whether subject to the PCMLFTR or not. The extent to which the information available
would include beneficial ownership information and information on the trust assets is unclear, as
apart from the PCMLFTR, no legal requirements to maintain such information exist. Furthermore,
linking a specific FI or DNFBP with a legal entity or partnership subject to the investigation and
accessing beneficial ownership information may not be timely in all cases. With regards to FIs and
accountants and trust companies acting as trustees, LEAs may also obtain information available to
FINTRAC in its capacity as FIU through a request for voluntary information records. FINTRACs
powers to access such information are, however, limited as outlined under criterion 29.2. In
situations where a trust owes taxes and is required to file income tax returns, the CRA also has
access to certain trust information, including the name and type of the trust and certain financial
information on the trust. Information available to the CRA typically includes beneficiary, but not
beneficial ownership information. The CRA may share taxpayer information upon request by LEAs
either based on a court order or after criminal charges have been laid; or upon its own initiative if
the CRA has reasonable grounds to believe that the information will afford evidence of certain
designated offenses, including ML under CC, s462.31.
Technical compliance Annex
Criterion 25.6— The authorities may exchange information on trusts with foreign counterparts
based on the procedures outlined under criteria 37.1 and 40.9, 40.11, and 40.17 to 40.19 and 11.
LEAs have wide powers to exchange information with foreign counterpart. FINTRAC as well as the
CRA may also share information with foreign counterparts as part of their respective functions.
Investigative measures to obtain beneficial ownership can be taken upon foreign request.
Criterion 25.7— Under the PCMLFTR, failure to comply with the identification, verification or
record-keeping requirements is subject to a range of criminal and administrative sanctions (see
write-up under R.35 for more details). Trustees other than accountants are not subject to the
AML/CFT framework. Violations of the principles of a trustees’ breach of fiduciary duties may give
rise to claims by the beneficiary and legal liability of the trustee based on these claims. However, in
the absence of a specific obligation to collect and maintain beneficial ownership or general trust
information there are also no sanctions available to authorities for a failure of the trustee to do so.
Criterion 25.8— For accountants, a the PCMLFTR sanctions may be applied by supervisory
authorities as discussed under criterion 27.4. For other trustees, however, no sanctions are in place
in the case of a failure to grant competent authorities timely access to trust related information.
Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures in Canada - 2016 © FATF and APG 2016
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