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Anti-Money Laundering & Fraud Remain Top Priorities
TM - July 17, 2025 - Featured Content Area
ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING
The Canadian Finance & Leasing Association (CFLA | ACFL) has been busier than ever over the past 3 months. Most of our resources were dedicated to the new anti-money laundering (AML) obligations for leasing and financing entities, which took effect on April 1, 2025. The CFLA is FINTRAC's main partner for all newly covered leasing and financing activities.
Through our active membership in the Supervision Public-Private Working Group and close collaboration with our members, we provide authorities with relevant information on how our industry operates, including KYC, the flow of funds, and agency relationships.
The CFLA continues to offer and develop resources to help members with implementation, including a series of webinars, best practice guides, and links to official government and other helpful material.
AML Snapshot April to June:
- 5 meetings with federal authorities
- 2 official submissions
- 20+ meetings with members
- 2 expert webinars
- 2 AML sessions at CFLA events
FRAUD
As organized fraud has become increasingly prevalent recently, particularly in the auto lending space, we have also been redoubling our efforts at the CFLA to prevent and mitigate fraudulent activity in the marketplace.
For the first time, we brought together a group of seasoned in-house fraud experts with OEM captive lenders to discuss prevalent fraud trends in the auto lending industry and ways to address this growing problem. At a high-level dinner at the C.D. Howe Institute, our President & CEO, Michael Rothe, and Board Chair Howard Cobham of GM Financial spoke with Ontario Premier Doug Ford directly in a sidebar conversation about our industry’s fraud concerns.
The CFLA is also working on augmenting our successful Suspicious Activity Alerts, and we regularly add new resources to our dedicated Fraud website.
REPAIR AND STORAGE LIENS ACT (RSLA)
We are also working hard to address issues related to the exploitation of the Repair and Storage Liens Act. We raised awareness about how lenders and customers are being taken advantage of with Vic Fedeli, Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, and Caroline Mulroney, President of the Treasury Board of Ontario. The CFLA was invited to submit suggested changes to the legislation to address our concerns, and we are partnering with a law firm on this.
OTHER ADVOCACY EFFORTS
Elsewhere, the CFLA, in collaboration with member firm Savoie Joubert, submitted detailed comments on the consumer protection regulations regarding capping negative equity in Quebec.
Our first meeting of the newly constituted OEM Protection Products Working Group was successful, laying the groundwork for our forthcoming advocacy efforts in the area of appearance protection products, with a particular focus on the Western Provinces.
These issues are only a snapshot of what we’re currently working on – the CFLA has over ten active advocacy initiatives on-going at any given time.
OUR NEXT QUARTER IN ADVOCACY
Looking ahead, ahead of an Ontario advocacy day at Queen’s Park later in the fall, we are shifting some resources to drafting actionable solutions for the RSLA issue, while continuing our relentless work on AML and fraud.
If you have any questions or comments on the above, or would like to discuss other advocacy issues, please get in touch with Marcel Buerkler, Director of Advocacy & Industry Intelligence.