{"id":47175,"date":"2026-05-15T20:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/47175\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:40:13","slug":"head-of-canadas-anti-money-laundering-watchdog-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/47175\/","title":{"rendered":"Head of Canada\u2019s anti-money-laundering watchdog steps down"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of Canada\u2019s anti-money-laundering watchdog is stepping down amid a broad overhaul of the federal government\u2019s approach to fighting financial crime.<\/p>\n

Lori Blair, a spokesperson for the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac), said in an email that Sarah Paquet\u2019s term as director and CEO concludes Sunday. Deputy director of intelligence St\u00e9phane Sirard is currently the acting director and CEO and will continue to serve \u201cuntil further notice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Talking Points<\/p>\n

Sarah Paquet, director and CEO of Fintrac since 2020, has stepped down, the federal anti-money-laundering agency confirmed
\nPaquet\u2019s departure comes as Ottawa works to clean up Canada\u2019s reputation as soft on financial crime as it awaits the high-stakes results of an international audit of its money-laundering controls<\/p>\n

Blair did not respond when asked why Paquet was leaving. Fintrac directors can serve for a maximum of 10 years, and Paquet has held the position since November 2020.<\/p>\n

Paquet\u2019s tenure has been marked by turmoil. Anti-money-laundering experts criticized<\/a> the relatively modest $9.2-million penalty Fintrac levied against TD Bank in 2024 for failing to prevent money laundering, which was dwarfed<\/a> by a US$3-billion fine from American regulators for the same offences. That same year, a cyberattack<\/a> on the agency took down Canadian small businesses\u2019 system for reporting suspicious transactions for months.<\/p>\n

A 2022 inquiry into money laundering in B.C. highlighted what it called Fintrac\u2019s \u201cineffectiveness,\u201d finding<\/a> that Canada has \u201cno comprehensive economic crime strategy, no real understanding of the money-laundering threats facing the country, and no meaningful evaluation of the effectiveness of the anti\u2013money-laundering measures put in place by the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Canada is awaiting<\/a> the results of a recent comprehensive international review of its money-laundering controls by the Financial Action Task Force, with potentially devastating economic consequences if it falls short.<\/p>\n

Under Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Liberal government has been working to turn around Canada\u2019s reputation for being soft on white-collar crime. In April\u2019s spring economic update, Ottawa outlined<\/a> the powers and budget for a new specialized police force called the Financial Crimes Agency, with a mandate to investigate everything from money laundering to corruption, both on its own and in partnership with existing law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

The federal government has also significantly expanded the number and types of businesses that report to Fintrac and beefed up the agency\u2019s powers to collect penalties, which it exercised through an unprecedented<\/a> enforcement blitz in 2025 that smashed previous annual records for fines levied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Canada\u2019s anti-money-laundering watchdog is stepping down amid a broad overhaul of the federal government\u2019s approach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,235,8510,2836],"class_list":["post-47175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-fintrac","tag-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}