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Need MSB registration in Canada for payment services, crypto trading, foreign exchange, remittances, or other money services?
Renno & Co LLP helps fintech companies get MSB registered with FINTRAC, prepare bank-ready AML policies and corporate documents, and navigate bank and account-provider onboarding.
Canadian MSB registration has become very popular around the world because it is a practical, lower-barrier registration regime into a reputable G7 jurisdiction with stronger access to international banking and payment rails.
Read below to learn more about how we can help!
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The registration process is short compared to other reputable jurisdictions.
You'll be regulated in a reputable G7 country.
A Canadian MSB (with a good AML program) opens the doors to international banks and account providers. We can help with this!
Unlike many payment licensing regimes, FINTRAC (which regulates MSBs) does not require you to lock up a large amount of regulatory capital.
Canada's federal MSB regime generally has lighter physical-presence requirements than many other major fintech jurisdictions.
A Canadian MSB can provide several fiat and virtual-currency services under the same registration — pretty rare globally.
You're entering a highly regulated industry. You probably want legal advice — not a registration reseller filling out forms offshore. We are a Canadian law firm and our fintech practice is focused exclusively on Canadian payment and crypto companies.
We've heard some horror stories from clients getting bad advice from foreign providers who just don't understand Canadian regulations. We are physically located in Canada and are governed by Canadian law societies (Ontario and Québec to be specific)!
As a regulated payment company, you'll have a ton of ongoing legal and compliance needs. We have an interdisciplinary team of Canadian lawyers and compliance professionals — we think this gives us the bigger picture and provides clients a more comprehensive all-in-one offering.
Our bread and butter is fintech, payments, and crypto. We know what it takes to get registered, get banked, go live, and stay compliant in Canada.
This is a powerful registration in that it allows you to provide a range of fiat payment services and crypto services. It's one of the only registrations (maybe the only?) that combines payment and crypto services.
For clarity, businesses can generally use their MSB registration to provide the following services:
We will advise on the most suitable Canadian jurisdiction (e.g. Alberta, British Columbia) for you to form your company, and will take care of your incorporation from A-Z.
We will prepare your entire corporate document suite, including your bylaws, articles of incorporation, and corporate resolutions. You'll have law-firm quality corporate documents that provide you all the things that regulators, banks and other account providers expect to see.
We will prepare and manage your MSB registration application from A-Z. As a part of this, we'll prepare your entire application package (including all supplementary documents). We've done a ton of these applications and know exactly what FINTRAC is looking for!
As an MSB, you are required to have written AML policies that are in line with Canadian regulations and meet your bank provider's expectations. Our objective is to prepare AML policies that will be acceptable to your regulator and your bank.
MSB registration takes a long time to complete as FINTRAC continues to experience delays. We're hearing from folks who do it themselves that it takes them 9+ months! Luckily, we have personal relationships with Managers of FINTRAC's MSB Supervision team — any time a registration is lagging, we escalate to our contacts! This allows us to process registrations within roughly 5-6 months.
An experienced compliance professional will serve as your authorized representative with FINTRAC, manage the registration process, and will communicate with FINTRAC on your behalf.
We will provide ongoing regulatory advice throughout the process regarding your company's structuring, MSB/fMSB registration, ongoing compliance obligations, AML regulations, and potential securities law implications of your business model.