FINTRAC MSB registration and the RPAA in Canada
A payment provider answers to FINTRAC, which checks for money laundering, and to the Bank of Canada, which checks how it runs and keeps your money. You can look a provider up with both.
Updated November 4, 2026
Two regulators, two jobs
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) sets anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing requirements for money services businesses.1
Under the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA), the Bank of Canada checks that your provider manages what could disrupt its service, reports incidents, keeps the money it holds for you apart from its own, reports each year and tells the Bank before significant changes.2
What FINTRAC means for you
Your provider checks who you are, asks who owns your business, keeps an eye on the relationship over time, and keeps records of your transactions and identity.3
A business in Canada is a money services business (MSB) if it offers a service such as sending money, exchanging currency or dealing in virtual currency.4
Acting as an intermediary to pay invoices or providing payment services for goods and services counts as remitting or transmitting funds. Invoice payment services include payments for utilities, payroll and commission, mortgage and rent, or tuition.4
Do you need to register?
Taking payment for your own sales does not by itself make your business an MSB. The exceptions also cover a business that only receives payments for a payee to settle a debt without passing on the payment instructions, and one that only supplies hardware such as a payment terminal.4
A business that moves money for others as its business can meet both tests and must register with both regulators. One registration does not stand in for the other.
What the Bank of Canada means for you
A business whose service is holding money for others, or sending transfers and payment instructions for them, is a payment service provider.5
It must register with the Bank of Canada before performing any retail payment activity.6
The application asks whether the applicant is registered with FINTRAC. The Bank can refuse an applicant that lacks the FINTRAC registration required by anti-money laundering law.7
Checking a provider
You can check a provider's registration yourself in two public registries. An MSB must register with FINTRAC before it begins operating in Canada, and FINTRAC publishes the Money Services Business Registry.8
The Bank of Canada keeps a public registry of registered payment service providers.9 Its payment service provider registration guide explains that registration process.
Sources (9)
- FINTRAC, "Money services businesses: FINTRAC's requirements" ↩
- RPAA, sections 17 to 22 ↩
- FINTRAC, "Compliance program"; FINTRAC, "Know your client"; FINTRAC, "Record keeping" ↩
- FINTRAC, "Who is a money services business" ↩
- RPAA, section 2 ↩
- RPAA, section 23 ↩
- RPAA, section 29; RPAA, section 48 ↩
- FINTRAC, "Summary of requirements for money services businesses and foreign money services businesses"; FINTRAC, "Money Services Business Registry" ↩
- RPAA, section 26 ↩
Questions
Why does my payment provider ask for my ID and who owns my business?
Your provider verifies your identity for certain transactions and activities, and asks who owns your business. It also monitors its business relationship with you and keeps transaction and identification records.1
Do I need to register with FINTRAC to take payments?
A business that only accepts payment for goods or services it supplied to its own customer is not an MSB through that activity.2 Moving money for others is a different activity and can bring your business within the regime.
Is a payment service provider a money services business?
It can be both. A business with a place of business in Canada is an MSB when it offers at least one MSB service, and invoice payment services and payment services for goods and services count as remitting or transmitting funds.2 A provider that meets both tests registers with both regulators.
How do I check a payment provider's registrations?
Search FINTRAC's Money Services Business Registry and the Bank of Canada's public registry of registered payment service providers.3 An MSB must register before operating in Canada, and a payment service provider must register before any retail payment activity.4
Sources (4)
- FINTRAC, "Compliance program"; FINTRAC, "Know your client"; FINTRAC, "Record keeping" ↩
- FINTRAC, "Who is a money services business" ↩
- FINTRAC, "Money Services Business Registry"; RPAA, section 26 ↩
- FINTRAC, "Summary of requirements for money services businesses and foreign money services businesses"; RPAA, section 23 ↩