Canada’s financial intelligence agency has been slow to provide police with information needed to curb money laundering, according to a new report from the federal auditor general.
The report, tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday, said inadequate tools and delays in providing financial intelligence had limited the ability of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) to “effectively carry out its role.”
FINTRAC, which is tasked with trying to detect and deter money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities, took an average of about four months to provide financial intelligence after law enforcement agencies flagged concerns.
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“According to our survey of recipients of FINTRAC’s financial intelligence, half of the respondents said they received this information too late to be useful,” the report found.
Without timely intelligence, law enforcement agencies are limited in their ability to “freeze assets, intercept transactions or apprehend suspects to prevent money from being moved or laundered,” the report added.
Between $45 billion and $113 billion is laundered through Canada annually, the report said, citing a 2020 estimate from Criminal Intelligence Service Canada.
The audit released on Thursday, which covered the period from Jan. 1, 2023, to the end of February of this year, outlined some factors that have slowed down FINTRAC’s ability to provide timely information.
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Information used to track financial transactions was manually entered into the agency’s system, the auditor general said — a process that took several days to complete. FINTRAC’s IT system also had limitations.
“The results of an analyst’s work to establish networks and connections were not stored in a centralized system for use by other analysts,” the report said.
“This meant that different analysts performed work that had already been done, which was inefficient and delayed the production of financial intelligence.”
Federal ministers will hold a news conference on Thursday afternoon to respond to the findings of the auditor general, who tabled nine separate reports today on different government departments.
In its response to the auditor general’s recommendations, which was included in the report, FINTRAC said it agreed that it should speed up the delivery of financial intelligence and modernize its IT systems.
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The agency said it has “robust processes and systems in place to analyze high‑priority records provided by law enforcement and, where appropriate, disclose on an urgent basis.”
“Further, FINTRAC has recently reformed its disclosure process since the audit period and has observed improvements related to the overall timeliness of disclosures.”
Separately, FINTRAC said in its annual report for 2025-2026, released earlier this week, that it revoked the registrations of 82 money services businesses, up from 12 the previous year.
It also imposed more than $198 million in penalties on nine money services businesses for a range of violations, the agency said.
