TechFlow News, March 18: According to Decrypt, Canada’s financial intelligence agency, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), conducted a coordinated enforcement action on Tuesday against 23 Money Services Businesses (MSBs) offering cryptocurrency-related services, revoking all of their registrations in a single move—marking a further escalation in Canada’s anti-money laundering (AML) regulatory efforts.
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne issued a statement on the matter, characterizing this operation as reflecting a “significantly accelerated enforcement pace” and affirming the government’s commitment to sustaining this momentum. Among the de-registered entities, two are foreign-based: Finast, registered in Slovakia, and Commerce Plex, registered in the United Kingdom—both of which operate traditional currency exchange and money transfer services alongside cryptocurrency activities.
According to FINTRAC’s official website, reasons for revoking registration include failure to respond to information requests in a timely manner, failure to meet registration eligibility requirements, and failure to update required records promptly—constituting compliance violations.
