Financial institutions across Canada have flagged more than 2.6 million potentially suspicious transactions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to government records obtained through Access to Information requests, while Ottawa's promised financial crimes police unit remains unfulfilled.The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre disclosed the figures covering the period from 2020 to 2024, with banks accounting for the vast majority of reports at 1.9 million transactions, reports Blacklock’s Reporter."These are numbers of suspicious transactions reports broken down by reporting entity type," the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre said in a statement. "It is important to note that in cases where a certain reporting entity type contains fewer than five suspicious transactions, reports were not provided."Cash transfer companies submitted 459,000 reports during the four-year period, followed by credit unions with 221,000 reports. Casinos filed 34,000 suspicious transaction reports, while trust and loan companies reported 22,000. Securities dealers submitted 8,000 reports, insurers filed 2,900, realtors reported 1,000, and diamond dealers flagged 900 transactions. Mortgage brokers and accountants reported 12 and 10 suspicious transactions, respectively..Federal law requires banks and other financial institutions to report all cash transactions exceeding $10,000, with penalties reaching $2 million for non-compliance. The Analysis Centre also mandates that cash dealers report any transaction they deem "suspicious" where "there are reasonable grounds to suspect the transaction is related to the commission or attempted commission of money laundering or terrorist activity financing.""'Reasonable grounds to suspect' is the required threshold to submit a suspicious transaction report to the Analysis Centre," said a guideline for bankers, Reporting Suspicious Transactions. "It is a step above simple suspicion, meaning there is a possibility that a money laundering or terrorist activity financing offence has occurred. You do not have to verify the facts."Red flags include customers who deposit cheques and immediately transfer funds to other accounts, depositors who use cash to purchase casino chips, and clients who request currency exchanges to convert cash into bitcoin..The reporting surge comes as the Liberal government has failed to deliver on its 2021 election promise to establish a specialized police agency to combat financial crimes. The party's platform, Forward For Everyone, committed to creating the new unit to tackle money laundering and white-collar crime."Fraud, money-laundering, insider trading, organized crime, and other financial crimes put Canadians at risk and put our economy at risk," it said. "A re-elected Liberal government will establish Canada's first ever nationwide agency whose sole purpose is to investigate these highly complex crimes and enforce federal laws in this area."Despite the pledge, no legislation has been introduced to create the agency. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said last Thursday he remained committed to addressing financial crimes."There will be more work," he said. "We have a plan."
