TORONTO – The federal government of Canada will establish a “Financial Crimes Agency” modeled after the Italian “Guardia di Finanza”, “because the Italians are world-class when it comes to fighting this type of crime and we must learn from them” said Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, today, during a press briefing to announce a series of extraordinary measures against financial crimes, scams, and online banking fraud.

“My aim is to go after organized crime, to go after those who scam and defraud Canadians,  especially the most vulnerable and the elderly” Champagne said. “To do this, we need something different from the organizations we already have. We need agents with the investigative power and the skills needed and the ability to really go after organized crime, money laundering, transantional crime … and since I want Canada to be the best at this, we’ve been consulting with the Italians, they even have an institute (Guardia di Finanza, ed) so they are, I would say, world class when it comes to fighting organized crimes and money laundering. We are learning from them, and we’re talking to the FBI and we are going to talk with the Financial Crime Unit in UK” to create “our own agency capable of fighting financial crime in the 21st century, which is a very complex issue…”.

“This summer” Champagne also said, “I also had the opportunity to personally visit the Guardia di Finanza, which is Italy’s top financial crime unit, to learn how they protect their own citizens against financial crimes…” (during his visit to Italy in July, Minister Champagne met with the commander of the Italian Guardia di Finanza, General Andrea De Gennaro, and the Italian Finance Minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, ed: in the pic below, from the Instagram profile of the Embassy of Canada to Italy).

For Champagne, therefore, the Italian model of the “Guardia di Finanza” (also called “Fiamme Gialle” from the yellow flames on their uniforms), along with the American (FBI) and British (Financial Intelligence Unit of the National Crime Agency NCA) models, is the one to follow in creating Canada’s Financial Crimes Agency, “which” the Minister added, “will bring together the best experts from other Canadian government agencies interested in joining the new organization”.

Champagne then announced other measures, particularly to combat online fraud and scams, including the adoption by banks of new policies and procedures to detect and prevent fraud. Specifically, the federal government intends to introduce legislative changes to require banks to obtain explicit consent from account holders before enabling transfers and payment features used by fraudsters to steal money. These changes would also allow account holders to disable unwanted features and adjust transaction limits to protect themselves.

Finally, the federal government will work with banks and others to develop a voluntary code of conduct against financial abuse: this code will establish clear guidelines for online scams and fraud, which, unfortunately, are becoming increasingly frequent and varied in Canada. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has indeed documented over thirty different types of fraud affecting Canadian consumers and businesses. It’s a rampant phenomenon that must be stopped once and for all.

In the pic above, Minister Champagne at today’s press conference (screenshot from the CPAC video here below)