The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) has published updated guidance for its member dealers to comply with new anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist financing (ATF) requirements.

IIROC said it has updated the current guidance to reflect the new requirements to those federal rules, as well as securities laws and IIROC’s own requirements.

In doing so, IIROC said it redrafted the original guidance into plain language, removed unnecessary duplication and incorporated the new rule amendments.

IIROC guidance is limited

In a release, IIROC said its guidance can only provide a high level outline of the expectations on dealers “along with pointers to other resources that will assist those needing to go beyond the available guidance. It also assumes that many of the existing practices currently employed within the industry to deter money laundering will continue,” noting that most dealers do not accept cash deposits or limit them to amounts well below the threshold for large cash transaction reporting.

No single standard can work for all IIROC members

IIROC also said there are some major differences within securities firms so no single standard can work for all of its member dealers. The guide, it said, should help a dealer adapt its compliance program to its business using as guidelines the breadth and scope of its customer base, type of accounts and transactions, the extent of international activities, differing natures and risks of its lines of business and other relevant factors.

The guidance will be effective June 1, 2020.