The federal government has pre-published proposed regulations addressing consumer-targeted fraud for a 30-day feedback period.
According to the government, this marks the initial step in efforts to develop a National Anti-Fraud Strategy. The regulations operationalize Bank Act reforms enforced through Bill C-15, which mandates banks to set procedures to identify, limit, and mitigate the impacts of consumer-targeted fraud.
Under the regulations, banks must secure explicit consent from consumers before enabling electronic funds transfer capabilities, capabilities which can be disabled by consumers, timelines to process change transaction limits requests, information banks must obtain in reporting fraud cases, and the timeline of reporting to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.
Moreover, the FCAC commissioner must release an annual report collating banks’ consumer-targeted fraud reports to the finance minister.
“We are taking action to ensure Canadians can feel confident that their financial systems are secure, while at the same time strengthening economic resilience, increasing innovation and competition in the financial sector, as well as fostering new industry partnerships,” said François-Philippe Champagne, finance and national revenue minister, in a statement.
Champagne commenced consultations on the first whole-of-government National Anti-Fraud Strategy in Canada on March 30.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre revealed last year that fraud schemes took over $704 million from Canadians. Reported losses since 2022 have exceeded $2.4 billion. However, just 5 to 10 percent of scams are flagged.
Pitched Consumer-Driven Banking Regulations were also pre-released for a 60-day feedback period to support the implementation of the Consumer-Driven Banking Act and representing progress towards the Consumer-Driven Banking Framework’s debut. The regulations would clarify requirements related to data scope, accreditation, national security, participating entities’ duties, liability, accredited third-party service providers’ duties, the technical standards body, evidentiary privilege, assessment fees, and breaches.
The framework is set to boost financial sector competitiveness and facilitate safe financial data disclosure with their selected approved service providers. Consumers increase their control of financial data and are granted improved financial management tools.
The regulations will be enacted through a staggered approach commencing with accreditation and then requirements related to common rules and assessment fees within one year of final publication. Once final regulations are released, the government will provide further details on the implementation approach for other products and services.
The Bank of Canada is tasked with managing Consumer-Driven Banking Act compliance, overseeing participating entities, accredited third-party service providers, the technical standards body, and the external complaints body. It will maintain a public registry of such entities for transparency.