Evidence of meeting #111 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bank.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Murray Rankin NDP Victoria, BC
Could I ask others for their view on the recommendation on whistle-blowers? Do you have them? If not, do you recommend that we take the view that whistle-blower protection would be a useful addition to our efforts to combat tax evasion in tax havens?
Conservative
Vice-President, Enterprise Regulatory Projects, Scotiabank
Scotiabank does have a whistle-blower policy, both globally and in Canada.
Head, Global Anti-Money Laundering Compliance, TD Bank Financial Group
As does TD.
Vice-President and Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
As does CIBC.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
You have about 20 seconds.
Thank you, Mr. Rankin.
Ms. Glover, please.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses for appearing.
I have a number of questions and I'm going to start with something that HSBC mentioned. You gave us disclosure numbers. Through you, Chair, I'd like to ask all the other banks to provide the same information. It would be very informative, but I want to get the numbers straight from Mr. Bartos, if I could. I heard you say there were 725 suspicious transactions. I think it was 9,500 large money transfers and then you said one more and I missed it as you were providing your opening statement.
Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, HSBC Bank Canada
Mr. Chairman, I'll repeat those figures. You were correct. There were approximately 725 suspicious transaction reports in 2012, 96,000 large cash transactions, which is where a customer comes in and transacts more than $10,000 over a 24-hour period, and 600,000 electronic fund transfer reports. Those are reports where there is $10,000 or more cross-border.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
I appreciate that information so much because there are some who would bank-bash and say you're not doing enough, but those are pretty impressive numbers. I'm interested in hearing from the other banks, not now, but if you could submit that to the committee it would be much appreciated.
These are clients who you are now reporting on, but do you also have policies about your competition? If a client were to come to you and say, “I was a member at XYZ bank and I discovered they were doing this, and that doesn't sit well with me and so I've traded and come to you”, and if you learn of information about your competition whether you are in Canada or abroad, do any of you have policies to report your competition?
Mr. Richard.
Vice-President and Senior Consultant, Wealth Management Group, BMO Nesbitt Burns, BMO Bank of Montreal
I couldn't comment on that because it's not really a matter I have crossed paths with.
Vice-President and Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Can I ask for some clarification on the question? What would we be reporting with respect to the competition?
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
A client comes to you and says, “Bank XYZ is doing something that I feel is immoral or illegal, and so I switched and came to your bank.” Do you report your competition when you gain information about them across the sea or here in Canada?
Vice-President and Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Not that I'm aware of.
Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, HSBC Bank Canada
I'm not aware of a particular instance where that has arisen.
Deputy Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, RBC Royal Bank
Certainly not among this group. I would say where we have had concerns on a global basis with a particular financial institution we do look at our activities and exchange of transactions with them and apply different scrutiny with respect to that going forward.
Vice-President, Enterprise Regulatory Projects, Scotiabank
I would agree with Mr. Purre's response.
Head, Global Anti-Money Laundering Compliance, TD Bank Financial Group
Yes, in that we file suspicious transaction reports if within the course of the payment we discover there is a financial institution involved in the payment that we think may have done something wrong.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Okay, good.
I have two minutes. I'm going to run out of time.
On reporting to FINTRAC, I want to know if when you're operating offshore all of the countries in which you are operating have an equivalent to FINTRAC and if you are sharing information with them. Are you also sharing information about Canadians offshore with FINTRAC and following Canada's best practices, or are you following the best practices of the country you're in or lack of best practices?
Mr. Richard.
Vice-President and Senior Consultant, Wealth Management Group, BMO Nesbitt Burns, BMO Bank of Montreal
It's not my expertise.