Thanks very much. Good morning, Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Katherine Carroll. I'm the global head of public policy at Stripe. I'm joined today by Gerald Tsai, Stripe's head of compliance.
We appreciate the important work this committee is doing and the opportunity to participate in this study.
By way of background, Stripe is a technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the Internet. Businesses of every size from small start-ups to public companies use our technology and tools to accept payments and manage their businesses online. Our products are used by businesses in more than 50 countries. We are regulated in jurisdictions around the world based on the products and services we offer in those jurisdictions. Agencies that supervise our regulated operations include the Central Bank of Ireland, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, FinCEN and the New York Department of Financial Services, among many others.
Stripe has a strong commitment to compliance with the laws and regulations where we operate. We have invested in building a best-in-class global program to comply with our regulatory obligations including “know your customer” and anti-money laundering regulations, sanctions rules, capital liquidity standards and data privacy rules. We also have advanced systems to analyze transaction flow, detect and prevent fraud, monitor for financial crimes, and protect our users against bad actors.
In addition to complying with our own legal obligations, we work with and operate within parameters set by our financial firms, including regulated financial institutions and card networks that have their own regulatory obligations and rules.
Stripe has operated in Canada since 2012 and opened our offices in Toronto just this week. We have served nearly 430,000 businesses in Canada. During the pandemic, we have worked to enable thousands of Canadian companies, large and small, to adapt and build online businesses.
Our Canadian operations focus on payment processing, enabling merchants to accept online payments. We also offer certain ancillary services and software to businesses, such as fraud detection and calculation of taxes. As is the case in many jurisdictions, payment processing services in Canada have not typically required registration. Payment processing is generally treated differently from, for example, providing money transmission or banking services.
Given the limited scope of our activities, we have therefore historically not been required to register with FINTRAC. Nonetheless, our payment processing activities in Canada are subject to robust global risk management and compliance policies and procedures as well as the requirements of our regulated bank partners.
Two weeks ago, pursuant to the Emergencies Act, we completed the preregistration process with FINTRAC. We have been in active communication with FINTRAC and stand ready to co-operate and comply with any permanent regulatory changes that are adopted whether through new legislation or in connection with implementation of the Retail Payments Activities Act. We've been actively engaged in the government's consultations on how payment processors such as Stripe should be regulated under that act, including as a member of the Bank of Canada's Retail Payments Advisory Committee.
Stripe provides payment processing services to a number of crowdfunding platforms, enabling them to accept payments through the major card networks. As with any activity on Stripe, fundraising campaigns are subject to information collection requirements with respect to the campaign organizer, screening for sanctioned parties, and other risk management and fraud controls. We take seriously our role as payments infrastructure and work alongside bank partners, card networks and platforms to ensure that users have proper controls in place.
Over the last few weeks as events unfolded in Ottawa and elsewhere in Canada, hundreds of our employees have worked closely with our financial institution partners and regulators to monitor activity, share information and comply promptly with court orders and other emergency measures. We continue to adhere to the government's and Canadian courts' determinations of which activities are lawful and when activities or assets should be restricted. We've been careful in this process to uphold our responsibilities and adhere to the law while also minimizing errors that would have cut off Canadians from the financial system.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be a part of this important discussion. We look forward to your questions.