The Canadian Minister of Finance has announced the establishment of a new financial crime agency aimed at mitigating fraud and money laundering and recovering criminal proceeds.
On 20 October 2025, Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne revealed plans to launch a national anti-fraud strategy to combat scaling losses when it announces its budget in November, which will require banks to set up policies to prevent and address fraud. In addition to this, Canada’s federal government will introduce a new financial crime agency, which will be the lead enforcement agency to fight financial crimes.
Canada’s strategy for stopping financial crime
Recent data shows that Canadians lost USD 643 million to financial crime in 2024, a 300% increase since 2020. However, only 5% to 10% of scams are actually reported to authorities. The Canadian Bankers Association (CBA), which represents approximately 60 banking institutions in the region, estimates that the real annual impact is leaning toward USD 11 billion, or 0.53% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Further expanding on this, the Minister of Finance mentioned that fraud represents an issue across multiple sectors as fraudsters expand their channels to target more victims, with them now using text messages, emails, and social media to achieve their goals. When it comes to the technology, telecommunications, and financial sectors, this leads to a need for increased security. To further support combating these challenges in the financial sector, Canada now aims to introduce its first anti-fraud strategy and establish a new agency for this specific purpose. However, both moves will require legal procedures, including a legal amendment and new legislation, to be completed.
Moreover, the government intends to collaborate with banks and stakeholders to develop a voluntary code of conduct to prevent economic abuse. With this conduct, it aims to set clear expectations for how financial institutions can identify, prevent, and respond to economic abuse to better safeguard Canadians.
Even if Canada already has several agencies to monitor fraud, the Minister of Finance said that a different agency is required to fight financial crime, which is now more complex and usually affects vulnerable individuals, especially seniors.
