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Guideline 3B: Submitting Suspicious Transaction Reports to FINTRAC by Paper
This replaces the previous version of Guideline 3B : Submitting Suspicious Transaction Reports to FINTRAC by Paper issued in May 2003. The changes made to this version are indicated by a side bar to the right of the modified text in the PDF version. Table Of Contents
1 GeneralThe following have to report suspicious and certain other transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC):
If you are one of these "reporting entities", this guideline has been prepared by FINTRAC to help you submit suspicious transaction reports by paper. It explains reporting timelines, how reports have to be sent to FINTRAC, and what information has to be included in these reports. For the purposes of suspicious transactions, an employee of any of the reporting entities described above is also a "reporting entity". If you are an employee and you have to submit a suspicious transaction report on your own behalf (that is, not on behalf of your employer), this guideline will explain how to submit the report. This guideline uses plain language to explain the most common reporting situations under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act as well as the related Regulations. It is provided as general information only. It is not legal advice, and is not intended to replace the Act and Regulations. For more information about money laundering, terrorist financing or other requirements under the Act and Regulations, see the guidelines in this series:
If you need more help after you read this or other guidelines, call FINTRAC's national toll-free enquiries line at 1-866-346-8722. Throughout these guidelines, several references are provided to additional information that may be available on external Web sites. FINTRAC is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of the information contained on those external Web sites. The links provided are based on information available at the time of publishing of this guideline. Throughout this guideline, any references to dollar amounts (such as $10,000) refer to the amount in Canadian dollars or its equivalent in foreign currency. Also throughout this guideline, the term "reporting entity" is used to refer to any person or entity required to report to FINTRAC. 2 Suspicious Transaction Reporting Requirements2.1 Suspicious Transaction Reporting TimelinesIf you are a reporting entity as described in Section 1, you have to send a suspicious transaction report to FINTRAC when there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a transaction is related to the commission of a money laundering offence or a terrorist financing offence. There is no minimum threshold amount for reporting a suspicious transaction. Guideline 2: Suspicious Transactions has more information on how to identify a suspicious transaction. You have to submit suspicious transaction reports to FINTRAC, containing specific information (see Section 4). Once you have determined that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the transaction is related to the commission of a money laundering or terrorist financing offence, your report, including all required and applicable information, must be sent within 30 calendar days. This 30-day reporting time limit begins when you or any one of your employees first detects a fact about a transaction that constitutes reasonable grounds to suspect that it is related to the commission of a money laundering or terrorist financing offence. If such a fact is detected at the time of the transaction, the reporting timeline begins at the time of the transaction. However, if the fact is not detected at the time of the transaction, the 30-day time limit could begin at some time after. For example, if the fact were detected during a review by corporate security after the transaction took place, the 30-day time limit would begin when corporate security first detected the fact. 2.2 Other ReportsInformation about other reporting requirements under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act that apply to reporting persons or entities can be found in the following guidelines:
2.3 Means of ReportingElectronic Reporting As a reporting entity, you have to submit all reports on suspicious transactions to FINTRAC electronically if you have the technical capabilities to do so. The minimum technical capabilities are as follows:
See Guideline 3A: Submitting Suspicious Transaction Reports to FINTRAC Electronically for more information on submitting reports to FINTRAC electronically. Exception for Employees and Suspicious Transaction Reports If you are an employee of a reporting entity, you are a "reporting entity" yourself, for the purposes of suspicious transactions only. This requires you to make a report to FINTRAC about a suspicious transaction unless you reported it to your superior. In this situation, if you need to make a report about a suspicious transaction that you did not report to your superior, you are considered not to have the technical capabilities to report electronically. This means you must submit this type of report by paper, as explained below. This exception does not apply if you are submitting a suspicious transaction report on behalf of your employer or anyone else that is a reporting entity. Paper Reporting If you do not have the technical capabilities to send reports electronically, you must submit reports on paper. See Section 3 for more information on submitting suspicious transaction reports to FINTRAC by paper. 2.4 Information to be Contained in a Suspicious Transaction ReportYour suspicion about there being a relation to a money laundering or a terrorist financing offence may be as a result of more than one transaction. In this case, include all the transactions that contributed to your suspicion in the same report. By completing all applicable fields in your reports, you make an important contribution to FINTRAC's ability to isolate activity pointing to possible money laundering or terrorist activity financing. In the case of a suspicious transaction report, your detailed explanation of what led to the suspicion is also extremely important to FINTRAC's analysis. See Section 4 for more information about what has to be included in a suspicious transaction report. 3 Paper Reporting3.1 How to Complete Paper ReportsIf you do not have the technical capability (see Section 2.3), you have to submit paper reports to FINTRAC. In this case, forms are available for paper filing as follows:
To ensure that the information provided is legible and to facilitate data entry, it would be preferable if the free-text areas of the paper reports (e.g., Part G) were completed using word-processing equipment or a typewriter. For reports completed by hand, the use of black ink and CAPITAL LETTERS is recommended. See Section 4 for completion instructions. It includes details of what each field must contain for a suspicious transaction report and indicates which parts of the form you may need to make copies of before you complete your report. 3.2 How to Send Paper Reports to FINTRACThere are two ways to send a paper report to FINTRAC:
3.3 Acknowledgement of Receipt of a Paper ReportFINTRAC will not send you any acknowledgement when your paper report has been received. 4 Instructions for Completing a Suspicious Transaction Report5 Comments?These guidelines will be reviewed on a periodic basis. If you have any comments or suggestions to help improve them, please send your comments to the mailing address provided below, or by email to guidelines@fintrac.gc.ca. 6 How to Contact FINTRACFor further information on FINTRAC and its activities, and report submission, please go to FINTRAC's Web site or contact FINTRAC: Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada |
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