Overview

• Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced that the Nov. 4 budget will propose a new agency to pursue money laundering and sophisticated online scams often tied to organized crime.
• Forthcoming Bank Act amendments would require banks to adopt policies to detect and prevent consumer-targeted fraud, obtain clear consent before enabling services such as e‑transfers, and report fraud data to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.
• Ottawa will launch consultations on a voluntary Economic Abuse Code of Conduct for financial institutions.
• The government did not outline how the planned agency would coordinate with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, FINTRAC, OSFI, or other existing enforcement and oversight frameworks.
• Officials cited Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre data showing $643 million reported lost to fraud in 2024, with people 60 and older accounting for about 40 percent of the total dollars lost.