{"id":78078,"date":"2025-08-18T06:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/78078\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T06:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:29:09","slug":"ontario-real-estate-agents-report-fewer-large-cash-transactions-to-fintrac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/78078\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario real estate agents report fewer large cash transactions to FinTRAC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ontario real estate<\/a> agents reported just eight large cash transactions over the past year to the federal anti-money-laundering watchdog, according to new figures. <\/p>\n

The multibillion-dollar real estate market is at high risk for money laundering, experts say. <\/p>\n

However, the low number of reports \u2013 which is down substantially from previous years \u2013 could be due, at least in part, to brokerages implementing no-cash policies. <\/p>\n

To help combat the flow of illicit funds, real estate agents and brokers are required by law to report cash transactions of $10,000 or higher, as well as suspicious transactions of any value, to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FinTRAC), which works with police. <\/p>\n

In data provided to The Globe and Mail, FinTRAC said Ontario\u2019s real estate sector submitted eight reports of large cash transactions in 2024-25. The province\u2019s realtors made 25 reports in 2023-24 and 16 in 2022-23. <\/p>\n

\u201cFinTRAC has observed a decline in the number of large cash transactions being reported from the real estate sector,\u201d spokeswoman Lori Blair said in an e-mail. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany businesses have implemented a no-cash policy, advising clients who want to make their deposits in cash to obtain bank drafts or certified cheques from their financial institutions instead.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Asked about the figures, the Ontario Real Estate Association said it has \u201cconsistently called on the provincial and federal governments to get \u2018dirty money\u2019 out of the real estate market,\u201d president Cathy Polan said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Ms. Polan said the group supports the creation of a beneficial ownership registry using the land title system to help combat the practice by people using shell companies to buy real estate. British Columbia has such a registry, but Ontario does not. <\/p>\n

In a 2022 report, Ontario\u2019s then-auditor-general Bonnie Lysyk found that the industry\u2019s regulator, the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO), had been ineffective in policing the residential property industry. <\/p>\n

RECO did not have a process to inspect whether real estate professionals were complying with anti-money-laundering laws, the report said. Ms. Lysyk said in a press release at the time that it was \u201cprobable that money laundering is occurring undetected in Ontario\u2019s real estate market.\u201d <\/p>\n

After the report, RECO updated its inspection process to include reviewing compliance with FinTRAC reporting obligations, said registrar Joseph Richer. The regulator also worked with FinTRAC to develop a course for real estate agents on compliance requirements. <\/p>\n

\u201cRECO takes money-laundering issues very seriously,\u201d Mr. Richer said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Mr. Richer said RECO inspectors have not identified cash deposits exceeding $10,000 in their reviews of a sample of transactions. \u201cCOVID-19 and the need for contactless transactions accelerated the industry\u2019s shift toward electronic funds transfers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

FinTRAC declined to provide data on large cash-transaction reports submitted by the real estate sector in British Columbia because the number is lower than the threshold for public disclosure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario real estate agents reported just eight large cash transactions over the past year to the federal anti-money-laundering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-78078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}