FINTRAC Annual Report 2024–25: Complete AML/CFT Guide, Insights & Analysis

FINTRAC Annual Report 2024–25: A Complete Guide to Canada’s AML/CFT Efforts

The FINTRAC Annual Report 2024–25 provides an in-depth look into Canada’s strengthened fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion. As the country’s Financial Intelligence Unit and AML/ATF supervisor, FINTRAC recorded its most productive year yet, generating unprecedented levels of actionable intelligence, expanding enforcement activity and accelerating technology-driven modernization. This SEO- and AEO-optimised article presents a comprehensive analysis of the report, retaining all major sections and datasets while delivering a narrative in well-structured paragraphs for enhanced readability and search optimisation.

FINTRAC’s Mandate

FINTRAC plays a central role within Canada’s Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regime, working alongside 12 other federal bodies under the leadership of the Department of Finance. Its mandate includes producing tactical financial intelligence for law enforcement and national security agencies, generating strategic intelligence that analyses ML/TF trends and emerging risks, supervising compliance under the PCMLTFA and contributing to global AML/CFT efforts. By working with reporting entities across financial and non-financial sectors, FINTRAC ensures that critical information flows into the financial intelligence system while safeguarding the privacy of Canadians. Its mandate also extends to collaborating with domestic and foreign agencies to detect and deter money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion and threats to Canada’s security.

Record Financial Intelligence Output in 2024–25

FINTRAC delivered the highest volume of intelligence in its history. In 2024–25, the Centre produced 6,236 financial intelligence packages based on 2,730 unique disclosures. These disclosures contained 511,480 reports and more than 1.3 million individual financial transactions, collectively covering 8,618 subjects. On average, each disclosure included 187 reports and 479 transactions. A substantial 96 percent of feedback received from law enforcement and national security agencies confirmed that FINTRAC’s intelligence was actionable and helpful in providing new leads, expanding investigative avenues or corroborating existing information.

The most common predicate offences linked to FINTRAC disclosures included fraud, which accounted for 25 percent of cases, followed by drug-related activities at 20 percent, crimes against persons at 16 percent, tax evasion at 12 percent and customs or excise violations at 11 percent. FINTRAC’s intelligence supported 206 major project-level investigations and hundreds of additional cases at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. Its contributions were acknowledged across Canada in investigations involving human trafficking, drug trafficking networks, child exploitation, cyber fraud, tax evasion, illegal gambling, auto theft and complex fraud schemes.

FINTRAC’s Efforts Against Illegal Fentanyl

Combatting the financing of illegal fentanyl was one of Canada’s top national priorities, and FINTRAC’s work contributed significantly to federal anti-opioid efforts. Throughout the year, FINTRAC generated 108 financial intelligence disclosures related to illicit fentanyl activities. These disclosures helped investigators seize 46 kilograms of fentanyl, nearly 16,000 synthetic opioid pills, other controlled substances, 122 firearms and more than $800,000 in cash. FINTRAC established a rapid intelligence production team, collaborated with the Joint Intelligence Operational Cell and supported Canada’s Fentanyl Czar by identifying emerging financial patterns, underground banking routes, precursor-chemical purchases and cartel-linked transactional behaviour. Through enhanced supervisory measures, FINTRAC shared updated money laundering indicators with reporting entities, which led to improved reporting related to fentanyl-linked financial crime.

Public-Private Partnerships: A Leading Global Model

Canada’s AML public-private partnership ecosystem remains one of the strongest globally, demonstrating how coordinated collaboration can generate substantial outcomes. Across seven national partnerships, FINTRAC provided 650 disclosures of actionable intelligence during the year.

Project Guardian, led by CIBC, continued to target the laundering of proceeds from illegal fentanyl. It produced 108 disclosures and highlighted new indicators related to synthetic opioid trafficking. Project Protect, inspired by survivor-advocate Timea Nagy-Payne and led by BMO, remained central to Canada’s fight against human trafficking. Through this partnership, FINTRAC generated 316 disclosures, identified 538 subjects and supported multiple multi-jurisdictional trafficking investigations. Project Shadow, co-led by Scotiabank and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, generated 57 disclosures and advanced cases involving online child sexual exploitation. Project Chameleon targeted romance and emergency fraud scams, producing 85 disclosures and playing a crucial role in identifying 126 victims under Project Sharp.

Project Legion focused on illegal cannabis activities, generating 51 disclosures and supporting major investigations, including a case involving 17,000 cannabis plants and an extensive identity-based money laundering scheme. Project Anton advanced the global fight against illegal wildlife trade, producing 24 disclosures across a network spanning more than two dozen countries. Project Athena contributed to British Columbia’s anti-money laundering initiatives with 24 disclosures on subjects involved in complex laundering schemes.

Safeguarding Canada’s Financial System Through Supervision

FINTRAC expanded its risk-based supervisory approach during 2024–25, shifting to a sector-focused model that deepens understanding of vulnerabilities across different industries. Over the year, FINTRAC undertook more than 1,300 supervisory assessment activities, representing a more than 40 percent increase from the previous year. The Centre administered 469 Supervisory Risk and Assessment Questionnaires, which strengthened its ability to identify sector-specific risks and conduct triaging between compliant businesses and those with significant deficiencies. It also conducted 294 formal examinations across high-risk sectors such as money services businesses, dealers in precious metals and precious stones and credit unions or caisses populaires.

FINTRAC continued to promote the voluntary disclosure of non-compliance, receiving 287 voluntary self-declarations from businesses. These declarations—primarily from financial entities—relating to unreported transactions helped FINTRAC ensure that rescinded or late reports were corrected and submitted for intelligence purposes. The Centre also held 120 monitoring meetings across high-risk sectors, including quarterly reviews with Canada’s largest banks to ensure their AML/ATF frameworks remained robust.

Enforcement Measures Reached the Highest Levels Ever

Enforcement actions intensified significantly in 2024–25. FINTRAC issued 23 Notices of Violation totalling more than $25 million in administrative monetary penalties, the highest number of penalties and the highest total penalty amount recorded in the Centre’s history. These penalties were applied across multiple sectors for violations ranging from failures to verify identity and maintain records to systemic breakdowns in AML compliance programs.

The number of non-compliance disclosures to law enforcement also more than doubled, rising to 32 cases during the year. These disclosures allowed law enforcement agencies to pursue criminal investigations into unregistered money services businesses, large unreported cash transactions, fraudulent identity practices and suspected laundering operations exploiting loopholes in regulated sectors. FINTRAC emphasised that non-compliance in AML obligations is not merely a technical deficiency but a serious threat that enables drug trafficking, organized crime, human trafficking and other dangerous criminal activities.

Engagement, Guidance and Support to Reporting Entities

FINTRAC continued its extensive engagement with businesses to help them understand and meet their regulatory obligations. The Centre delivered guidance across sectors newly brought under the Act, including mortgage administrators, armoured car companies, cheque cashing firms, factoring companies and financing or leasing businesses. It also hosted webinars on sanctions evasion, property reporting and anti-fentanyl measures attended by thousands of participants.

The Centre responded to more than 17,000 enquiries from reporting entities and the public, provided training sessions, conducted workshops for banks and casinos on suspicious transaction reporting and participated in sector-specific roundtables across the securities, MSB, life insurance and real estate sectors. FINTRAC also strengthened information-sharing networks by signing new memoranda of understanding with the U.S. OCC, the FDIC, the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission, CPA Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency.

MSB registration oversight remained a critical pillar of supervision. During the year, 509 new money services businesses registered with FINTRAC, 351 renewals were processed, 566 registrations expired and 198 ceased. By March 31, 2025, a total of 2,778 MSBs were registered with the Centre, while 12 registrations were revoked due to compliance failures or disqualifying offences.

Global Leadership and International Collaboration

FINTRAC maintained a strong global presence and leadership role within international AML/CFT networks. The Centre responded to 378 queries from foreign FIUs and provided 345 disclosure packages to partners abroad, more than doubling its previous year’s contributions. Its intelligence supported investigations into illegal exports to Russia, transnational fraud schemes, wildlife trafficking, terrorist financing and synthetic opioid distribution.

Collaboration deepened through the North American Drug Dialogue with the United States and Mexico, the Russia-Related Sanctions and Illicit Finance Working Group, the Counter-Terrorism Financing Taskforce Israel and capacity-building events with Ukraine, Germany, Nigeria and Liberia. FINTRAC co-chaired the FINTRAC–FinCEN AML/ATF Symposium and played leading roles within the Egmont Group, including chairing the Information Exchange Working Group and co-leading workstreams on environmental crime. The Centre also contributed to FATF policy development on virtual assets, beneficial ownership, sanctions evasion, proliferation financing and online child exploitation.

Conclusion

The FINTRAC Annual Report 2024–25 captures a transformative year in Canada’s AML/ATF landscape. With historic highs in intelligence production, enforcement, public-private partnership outcomes and supervision, along with cutting-edge technological modernization and global leadership, FINTRAC has strengthened Canada’s defences against complex financial crime. Its work has enhanced national security, protected vulnerable communities and reinforced the integrity of Canada’s financial system.