In addition to the existing requirement of appointing a person responsible for implementing your office compliance regime, you will also have to include the following in your Office Compliance Policy once the new regulations come into effect in June 2008:

• Develop, apply, and keep up-to-date written compliance policies and procedures. If you are an entity such as a real estate firm, they need to be approved by a senior officer. This was a requirement of the regulations in the past; now it is in the legislation.
• Assess and document the risk related to money laundering and terrorist activity financing in a way that is appropriate to you considering:
  • your clients and your relationships
  • your products, delivery channels, and geographic areas where you do your business activities
  • any other relevant factor.
• Develop and maintain a written ongoing compliance training program for your employees, agents, or other individuals authorized to act on your behalf.
• In an interpretation to CREA, FINTRAC has advised that it is the responsibility of the brokerage to keep records retained for the brokerage. In other words, your office policy should state that any FINTRAC compliance records collected by any employee or contractor acting on behalf of the broker, shall be retained by the brokerage. If that employee or contractor leaves the brokerage, the records they acquired while representing the brokerage shall remain with the brokerage.
• Establish and document a review of your policies and procedures, risk assessment, and training program for their effectiveness. The review will have to be done once every two years by either an internal or external auditor or by an individual of your organization if you do not have an auditor. CREA has developed a Risk Assessment Form to help you in this process.
• If you are an entity (e.g., real estate firm), then within 30 days after the above review, its findings, any updates to your compliance policies and procedures, including their implementation, will have to be reported in writing to the broker of record, or senior management.
• If you determine that the risk is high for money laundering or terrorist financing to occur through the services you provide, you will have to take measures to mitigate the risk and take reasonable measures to:
  • Keep client identification information up to date; and
  • Conduct ongoing monitoring of financial transactions to detect suspicious transactions.