Canada's 2026 federal budget proposes significant changes to the country's financial regulatory landscape, including reforms to anti-money-laundering oversight, banking competition and the rules governing troubled financial institutions.

Speaking with the Financial Post and The Globe and Mail following the budget's release, Alana Scotchmer discussed the implications of these proposals, including the planned transfer of anti-money-laundering supervision from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FinTRAC) to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI).

"OSFI is a prudential regulator and supervisor, not a financial intelligence unit like FinTRAC. It has largely moved to principles-based supervision, and the FATF itself notes that OSFI doesn't do hands-on [anti-money-laundering] examinations today. How it operationalizes this ... will be the real test," Alana told The Globe and Mail. 

Alana also discussed the budget’s broader measures on financial crime and banking competition, and what they could mean for financial institutions.

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