Canada’s approach to financial crime enforcement has long been criticized as fragmented. Responsibility for investigating money laundering, fraud, and sanctions offences has historically been distributed across multiple federal agencies and provincial bodies, with no single dedicated authority equipped to handle the most serious and complex cases. Bill C-29, the Financial Crimes Agency Act, is designed to change that. Introduced in the House of Commons on April 27, 2026, the legislation proposes the creation of a new standalone federal law enforcement body with a focused mandate, broad investigative powers, and authority that extends to digital assets and cross-border financial crime. For compliance professionals at Canadian financial institutions, fintechs, and money services businesses, this legislation signals a material shift in the enforcement environment.
Key Highlights
- Bill C-29 was tabled in the House of Commons on April 27, 2026 and proposes the creation of the Financial Crimes Agency (FCA), a new federal law enforcement body dedicated to investigating serious and complex financial crimes.
- The FCA’s mandate covers money laundering, proceeds of crime, serious fraud, sanctions offences, capital markets misconduct, and any conduct threatening the security or integrity of Canada’s financial system, including offences involving digital assets.
- The agency will operate under the Minister of Finance and be led by a Commissioner who holds peace officer status throughout Canada.
- The FCA will have authority to commence investigations on its own initiative or in collaboration with other domestic and international law enforcement agencies, and must enter into a formal arrangement with the RCMP for services and support.
- Bill C-29 is part of a broader federal enforcement push that includes recent amendments to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) and a new National Anti-Fraud Strategy in development at Finance Canada.
- Reported fraud losses in Canada exceeded $704 million in 2025, reinforcing the urgency behind both the legislation and the broader anti-fraud strategy.
The Enforcement Gap Bill C-29 Is Designed to Close
Canada has faced sustained criticism for relatively low rates of investigation, prosecution, and asset recovery in major financial crime cases. The 2019 Cullen Commission in British Columbia, which examined money laundering in casinos and real estate, exposed how difficult it was for authorities to coordinate across jurisdictions and agencies when the financial flows were sufficiently complex.
The federal government responded through a series of incremental measures before arriving at the FCA proposal. The Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act (Bill C-12), which received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026, amended 14 statutes, including significant changes to the PCMLTFA. Those amendments increased maximum administrative monetary penalties and criminal penalties, and added new information-sharing authority for the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC). In parallel, the government launched the Integrated Money Laundering Intelligence Partnership (IMLIP) in 2025, a forum allowing information exchange between law enforcement and major financial institutions without altering existing privacy obligations.
Bill C-29 is the most significant structural step in that sequence. Rather than adding powers to existing bodies, it creates a new agency from scratch, one built specifically to investigate financial crime at scale.
What the Financial Crimes Agency Act Proposes
Mandate and Scope
The FCA’s statutory mandate is to investigate financial crimes and contribute to the recovery of proceeds of crime, with a focus on matters that are serious and complex. The Commissioner will have the authority to establish criteria defining which cases fall within that threshold, providing operational precision the current framework lacks.
The legislation defines “financial crime” broadly. It covers any offence under a federal act involving financial assets, including digital assets, money laundering, proceeds of crime, and any conduct that adversely affects or has the potential to adversely affect the security or integrity of Canada’s economy, its financial system, or any financial market in Canada. The scope also extends to designated offences under the Criminal Code from which proceeds of crime are derived, and to offences under the PCMLTFA.
Governance and Structure
The FCA will operate under the authority of the Minister of Finance, who may issue directions to the Commissioner on matters of public policy or strategic direction. All such directions must be made public. The Commissioner is appointed by the Governor in Council for an initial term of up to five years, renewable to a maximum of ten years total, and holds the rank and powers of a deputy head of a department.
Critically, the Commissioner holds the status of a peace officer throughout Canada. The Commissioner may designate agency employees either as “investigations officers,” who are public officers for the purposes of the Criminal Code, or as “police officers,” who hold full peace officer status. This structure gives the FCA meaningful enforcement authority rather than the purely administrative role that FINTRAC currently plays.
Investigative Powers and Coordination
Investigations may be commenced on the Commissioner’s own initiative or at the request of, or in collaboration with, any law enforcement agency or public body inside or outside Canada. The Commissioner of the FCA and the Commissioner of the RCMP are required by the legislation to enter into a formal arrangement for the RCMP to provide services and assistance to the FCA as the agency builds its operational capacity.
The Attorney General of Canada is also granted concurrent authority to conduct proceedings in respect of financial crimes investigated under the Act. Where the Attorney General issues a fiat, based on factors including whether an offence is transnational, committed in more than one province, or involves the national interest, federal jurisdiction takes precedence. This does not displace provincial Attorneys General in cases that do not meet those thresholds.
The FCA will also have the authority to enter into contracts and agreements to support information sharing and collaboration with other bodies, including foreign counterparts, a provision that reflects the transnational character of the financial crimes the agency is designed to target.
What This Means for Compliance Teams
The creation of a dedicated federal agency with investigative authority, peace officer powers, and an explicit mandate to pursue serious and complex financial crimes changes the risk calculus for any Canadian institution with exposure to money laundering, fraud, or sanctions vulnerabilities. Several practical implications follow directly from the bill’s provisions:
- Correspondent and counterparty due diligence will face greater scrutiny. The FCA’s authority over cross-border flows and digital assets means institutions with international payment exposure should expect heightened attention to their FINTRAC reporting obligations and the quality of due diligence documentation at onboarding and beyond.
- Transaction monitoring programs must meet a higher evidentiary standard. When investigations escalate to a dedicated law enforcement agency, the quality of alerts, dispositions, and audit trails matters considerably. Compliance teams relying on automated transaction monitoring will benefit from systems that generate clear, investigation-ready documentation, not just alert volumes.
- AML and fraud functions are converging in the regulatory field of view. The FCA’s mandate spans money laundering, fraud, and sanctions, the same combination that FRAML frameworks address operationally. Institutions that treat these as separate programs face a structural disadvantage when enforcement examines the full pattern of financial crime activity rather than its individual components.
- Digital asset exposure requires explicit controls. The bill’s inclusion of digital assets within the definition of financial crime is a direct signal. Institutions that have not yet mapped their digital asset risk, or built screening and monitoring controls around it, should treat this legislation as a prompt to do so.
Strengthening AML and Fraud Programs Ahead of Increased Enforcement
Canada’s financial crime enforcement environment is becoming more coordinated and more consequential. The FCA does not replace FINTRAC’s reporting and analytical role; it adds an investigative layer with real enforcement authority. For compliance teams, this is an inflection point.Institutions that have deferred investment in their AML compliance programs should treat the tabling of Bill C-29 as a signal that the gap between regulatory expectation and enforcement action is narrowing. The goal is not simply to file the right reports. A well-designed compliance program, one that generates defensible decisions at every stage from onboarding through transaction monitoring to case closure, is what stands up to scrutiny when a dedicated federal agency comes looking.
