So you want to register a Money Service Business (MSB) in Canada?

Modern business-projects are connected with the provision of high-tech services. If we are talking about financial structures, it is an extremely profitable interaction to work in the field of providing cash-handling assistance. New companies are regularly required in the market to provide fast and quality money transfers and foreign currency-transactions. However, such companies need to follow many guidelines and obtain the appropriate authorization documents.

One of the active locations for such kinds of businesses is considered to be Canada. To obtain a Canada MSB license, you need to enlist with FINTRAC. But this is only the first stage and co-founders of such business need to understand how to develop in this sphere and where to start working. Let’s try to understand it in more detail.

Registration

To start operating in the Canadian market, you need to have an officially enlisted legal entity. Money Services Business registration in Canada is done by submitting a package of documents to FINTRAC. This is a mandatory procedure for every company planning to provide money services in the MSB industry. Not only individual entrepreneurs but also legal entities need to undergo registration.

To pass the procedure, the company needs to fill in the appropriate form indicating the structure of the company. Also, the following data are indicated in the form:

• the company’s tax number;
• the direct name of the legal entity;
• indication of the registration-address and location;
• communication details of the manager;
• list of services provided in the MSB sphere.

Representatives of the regulatory authorities should contact the management of the company that submitted the form within 5 working days. After the communication, it is possible to fill in the form for registration in the relevant electronic system. In addition to the above data, it should include info about the bank-account, staff, all data about the surveillance, and foreseen annual volumes of operations.

The company’s representatives will also need to submit police records of all co-founders of the legal entity in English or French. If the documents are in order, the enrollment of the legal entity will be quick.

Actions after enrollment

After applying, those wishing to start a Canadian money services-business must wait for the enrollment to be finalized (because it is possible that the application will be rejected or a requirement to furnish more info about the company). Rejection of the apps may be due to prolonged ignoring of requests for clarification of data from the registration authorities.

In addition, the refusal may be in case the co-founders of the business are found to be laundering criminal funds or running an illegal business. Also, a ban on registration in Canada may occur if one of the co-founders of a 20+% shareholding has been found blameworthy of terrorism or has a criminal record for certain offenses. In total, companies may be given varying amounts of time between 2-5 months to investigate and provide information.

Prerequisites for applicants for enrollment

For a company to successfully register and not have its MSB license revoked, it must follow and comply with Canadian law. This primarily involves adhering to a compliance-program. This means that the applicant company must have a compliance-program in place and comply with the relevant-regulations.

Directly within the corporation, the company’s employees must be prescribed to have access to management and report to them any suspicious transactions that other employees may be attempting to conduct. If the license applicant is operating as a sole proprietor, he needs to hire an outside organization for compliance control, or he himself undertakes to perform these functions.

It also needs to comply with KYC policies. This means that the licensee’s representative should be aware of all large and suspicious transactions of its clients, especially when they are often conducted either at or above the permitted limits. Such client transactions should be immediately reported to the competent authorities and if the company ignores such transactions, it may be disqualified from operating in the MSB market.

In addition, licensees are required to submit all reports regarding suspicious-transactions large cash deposits, or transfers to gray accounts. Some reports are required to be submitted less than 24 hours in advance. Companies are also directed to keep records of such dealings and generate reports on the servicing of such transfers.

By complying with all these prerequisites and not violating Canadian law, companies will be able to operate safely in the local market and earn money.

Who will help with MSB-company enrollment

Canadian legislation is quite scrupulous. Therefore, it is possible to apply for enrollment on your own, but it is extremely difficult. The best way out is to contact professionals who will help to solve this task in the shortest possible time.

We have just such experts in our company. Each member of our staff has worked with Canada’s regulatory agencies many times and understands their requirements. That’s why we are ready to help you gather the right documents, spell out all the approaches and systems, and form an application that will be decided the first time. While your competitors are correcting mistakes, you’ll be making money.