International Anti-money Laundering Organization will be Based in Toronto
On July 7, 2006 Canadian officials announced that Toronto will become the permanent base of Egmont Group - an international organization that will be dealing with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing. Canada will spend $5 million to establish the headquarters of the Egmont Group.
Canadian Minister of Finance, the Honourable Jim Flaherty, assumes Canada has taken one of the leading roles in combating money-laundering on the international level.
Hosting Egmont Group is not the only major step Canada has made toward anti-money laundering.
Canada has recently joined the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) described in the previous blog.
Also, Frank Swedlove, who is a Canadian, has been appointed for 1 year to the presidency of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The Canadian government allocated $64.4 million in the 2006 budget in order to fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. Also, and new anti-money laundering legislation, which will enhance monitoring and intelligence gathering efforts of Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), is to be introduced soon.