Digital bank fined by FINTRAC

Toronto-based digital bank Wealth One Bank of Canada has been sanctioned for compliance violations by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

The federal agency announced that it imposed a $676,500 monetary penalty on the bank after finding various compliance shortcomings, including failing to develop certain policies, record-keeping failures and failing to submit suspicion transaction reports.

In a release, FINTRAC said that the penalty has been paid, and noted that the violations aren’t related to money laundering or terrorist financing offences.

Wealth One said that the deficiencies were uncovered in a routine compliance exam in June last year.

“The bank works closely with regulators and has an ongoing program for enhancing and strengthening our compliance programs. Any issues identified are immediately addressed, including those identified by FINTRAC,” said Paul Leonard, president and CEO of the bank, in a release.

“To be clear, this has nothing to do with money laundering and any allegation that the bank, or anyone who works here, may be involved in money laundering is completely unfounded,” Leonard added.

The bank said that it cooperated with regulators and that it remains committed to high standards of conduct and compliance.

“The bank takes these matters very seriously and addresses them through continuous improvements and in the normal course of its engagement with the regulators,” Leonard added.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.