OACIQ’s initiatives to tackle money laundering

The OACIQ has stepped up its efforts in recent years to combat fraud and money laundering in the real estate brokerage field more effectively.

In 2022-2023, several initiatives have been implemented to tackle financial crimes, including:

• The publication of a guideline for brokers on the prevention of money laundering and real estate fraud
• The presentation of a conference at the National Real Estate Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Virtual Forum 2022 organized by FINTRAC
• The presentation of a conference at the Colloque sur la fraude 2023, organized by the Credit Institute of Canada
• The OACIQ's membership with the Government of Canada's Fraud Prevention Forum
• A mandatory training entitled Anti-money laundering in real estate brokerage: Detecting it, preventing it and meeting your obligations for licensees before November 15, 2022
• Twelve elective training courses on money laundering and financial crimes related to real estate accredited or proposed by the OACIQ to real estate brokers under the Mandatory Continuing Education Program
• Twenty-five articles on fraud, money laundering and economic crimes related to real estate are available to licensees on the extranet reserved for them
• Twenty-five articles reminding licensees of their obligations were published in the weekly newsletter

These initiatives supplement the Organization’s ongoing work on money laundering prevention in the professional practice of real estate brokers and agency executive officers:

• A reporting online form;
• Near 2,500 inspections in 2022 to ensure compliance with ethical and legal obligations regarding identity verification, cash transactions and FINTRAC standards;
• Investigations by the Syndic into any allegations of money laundering and non-compliance with the ethical rules surrounding the laundering of the proceeds of crime
• A collaboration agreement with FINTRAC to promote the rapid and efficient sharing of information for the purposes of our respective investigations and inspections. The OACIQ becomes the second Canadian regulator to have such an agreement
• Exchanges on best practices for preventing money laundering between members of the Real Estate Regulators of Canada, of which the OACIQ is a member

The OACIQ is constantly making the necessary efforts to inform licensees of their obligations regarding fraud and money laundering, investigate behaviours that do not comply with the legislation and act promptly to protect the public where necessary.