September 6, 2023 – FINTRAC Q&A

On Wednesday, September 6, 2023, we were joined by Carson Kong, Senior Compliance Officer at FINTRAC, and Mark Sokolnicki, Regional Compliance Manager at FINTRAC. Carson and Mark provided answers to many of the questions stemming from previously held sessions hosted by BCREA and KPMG on topics such as training and filling out forms, when FINTRAC obligations are triggered, suspicious transaction reporting, FINTRAC compliance examinations, and more.

Please note the recording of this September 6^th Community of Practice will only be available on BCREA Access for a period of three months.

Also note that FINTRAC will be presenting at BCREA’s Managing Broker Conference November 8 – 9, 2023, and registration is open here. We recommend registering early as some of our sessions have limited capacity, so this is your opportunity to tailor your conference experience to your interests!

• Session slide deck (FINTRAC)

At this Community of Practice session presented by FINTRAC, several submitted questions have already been answered in CREA’s FINTRAC FAQs, linked here. Below are the related FAQ numbers and answers to those questions, along with several other resources to answer some additional questions that were asked.

1. Two questions related to the monitoring of business relationships: FAQs 5, 8, and 56.
2. Three questions were asked about lawyers’ and property managers’ responsibilities under FINTRAC: FAQs 11 and 15.
3. Two questions asked for comments on REALLY TRUSTED’s FINTRAC application: FAQ 50.
4. One question asked why the REALTOR^® is required to fill out the Receipt of Funds: FAQs 18 and 62.
5. One question asked if FINTRAC compliance is required to sell a business: FAQ 12.
6. One question asked about incomplete transactions: FAQ 84.
7. One question asked about employment, specifically ‘student’ and ‘teacher’: FAQ 32.
8. One question asked, “BitCoin?”: FAQs 63 and 70.
9. One question asked for a “pre-made” client ID form: FAQ 13. Resources are here: Anti-Money Laundering (FINTRAC) – CREA Member Portal, and the ID form is here: Individual Identification Information Record.
10. One question asked if administrative penalties are automatic: Questions and answers on administrative monetary penalties: Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.
11. One question asked for a policy manual and examples: Anti-Money Laundering (FINTRAC) – CREA Member Portal. 

Three other questions from the Q&A were submitted to FINTRAC’s representatives for answers and we are currently waiting for the responses, and the remainder were answered during the presentation.

Below are some useful resources from the session:

BCREA courses:

• The REALTOR^®‘s Guide to Suspicious Transactions
• FINTRAC for REALTORS^®: Understanding Canada’s Anti-Money Laundering Laws
• Mastering Compliance 2.0: Anti-Money Laundering Training for Brokers

FINTRAC Resources:

• Methods to verify the identity of persons and entities
• Video 1 – Verifying the identity of a client: Government-issued photo ID method
• Video 2 – Verifying the identity of a client: Credit file method
• Video 3 – Verifying the identity of a client: Dual-process method
• Video 4 – Verifying the identity of a client: Affiliate or member method
• Video 5 – Verifying the identity of a client: Reliance method
• Real estate brokers or sales representatives, and real estate developers
• Policy interpretations database
• Send Questions to FINTRAC:
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Telephone: 1 866 346 8722 (toll free)

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