FINTRAC MSB registry: how to check a firm's registration

A FINTRAC MSB registration is the registration Canadian law requires of a business before it deals in foreign exchange, transfers funds, deals in virtual currency or carries on another listed money services activity in Canada, or directs those services at Canada and provides them to clients there. If you are assessing a Canadian counterparty, it is the first thing to establish and the easiest thing to check. It is also routinely misdescribed, including by firms that hold one.

Checked against FINTRAC’s website on 23 October 2026.

How to check a FINTRAC MSB registration

It takes a few minutes, needs no login, and does not depend on the firm sending you anything.

1. Get the legal entity name and the registration number, not a logo or a claim. Trading names often differ from the registered legal name, so ask for both. If a firm cannot give you its number, that in itself tells you something.
2. Open the Money Services Business Registry and search. FINTRAC says all fields are searchable. Search the legal name or the number first; a trading name may not be listed.
3. Match the entry. The legal name, operating name and registration number should agree with the contract, the website footer and what the firm told you. A similar name is not the same entity.
4. Read the status and the dates: Registered, Expired, Ceased or Revoked (see the table below), plus the initial registration date, the expiry date and any cessation or revocation date.
5. Compare Services Offered with what you need the firm to do. Registered for foreign exchange is not registered for virtual currency.
6. Ask which ministerial directives they apply, and how they track changes to the list in force.
7. Note the language they use about their own status. Registration or licence? The firms that inflate the easy, checkable claim tend not to be more careful about the hard ones.

FINTRAC’s own advice to the public is to verify the registration details in the registry, such as the name, number and status, and to do your research before using a money services business (FINTRAC: conducting transactions with a money services business).

What the registry statuses mean

Status	What it means (FINTRAC)	What to do
Registered	The business is currently registered with FINTRAC. A business that filed its renewal before the expiry date stays Registered while FINTRAC processes it.	Check the services and the expiry date.
Expired	The business did not renew its registration.	Do not treat it as registered. Ask the firm why.
Ceased	The business notified FINTRAC that it no longer offers the prescribed services.	Do not treat it as registered for those services.
Revoked	The business is no longer registered, for example because it did not answer a FINTRAC clarification request or was found ineligible.	Do not proceed without a clear, documented explanation.

A name appearing in the registry is not the same as being registered. In the registry file FINTRAC published on 23 October 2026, 4,275 of 8,926 entries were Registered. The rest were Expired, Ceased or Revoked, and they stay in the file.

If the firm is not listed at all, FINTRAC says that operating an unregistered money services business is a violation and an offence under the Act. Because the registry is updated monthly, ask the firm for its registration number and recheck rather than assuming either way.

It is a registration, not a licence

Canada’s regime is registration-based. A business carrying on a listed money services activity must register with FINTRAC and then meet the obligations that follow from registering. FINTRAC states plainly that registration “does not indicate that FINTRAC endorses or licenses the business.”

That difference is not pedantry. A licence implies a regulator looked at what you intend to do and permitted it. A registration means you told the supervisor you are doing it and accepted the duties that attach. Both are real regulatory status; they are not the same status.

So when a provider tells you it is “licensed by FINTRAC”, you have learned something: not about its permissions, but about how carefully it describes itself. We describe ours as registrations throughout this site for exactly that reason.

There is no certificate. The registry is the evidence.

FINTRAC does not issue licences or certificates of registration. There is no document to request, and if a counterparty produces a “FINTRAC certificate” during due diligence, that is a finding rather than a reassurance.

What exists instead is the public MSB Registry, which is a better artifact than a certificate would be:

• you check it yourself, without asking the firm for anything;
• it shows status as at FINTRAC’s latest monthly update, not as at whenever a PDF was generated;
• it shows the services the firm is registered for;
• it shows the expiry date, and any cessation or revocation date.

What the registry does not tell you

Registration is a legal minimum, and the registry is narrow.

• It is not an endorsement, and it is all FINTRAC will say. Registration does not mean FINTRAC endorses the business, and FINTRAC says it cannot provide further information on a business beyond what the registry shows.
• It is not real time. FINTRAC updates it monthly.
• It says nothing about how well the firm runs its program, how it treats client money, or whether other regimes apply. In Canada, payment service providers also register with the Bank of Canada under the Retail Payment Activities Act; that is a separate regime, explained in RPAA registration.
• A provincial registration or licence does not replace the FINTRAC registration, and the FINTRAC registry does not show provincial status.

Which activities a registration covers

A firm registers for the specific activities it carries on. FINTRAC’s list of money services business activities is:

• foreign exchange dealing;
• remitting or transmitting funds;
• issuing or redeeming money orders, traveller’s cheques and similar instruments;
• dealing in virtual currency, which covers both exchange and transfer services;
• crowdfunding platform services;
• cheque cashing, armoured car services, and acquirer services for private automated banking machines.

FINTRAC’s position is that a business providing invoice payment services, or payment services for goods and services, is engaged in remitting or transmitting funds, or dealing in virtual currency. The exceptions include a business that only accepts payment for goods or services it supplied to its own customers. The registry’s Services Offered column uses labels such as Foreign Exchange, Money Transferring, Virtual Currency, PSP and Crowdfunding. (FINTRAC: money services businesses)

A business with no place of business in Canada can still need to register as a foreign MSB if it directs those services at people or entities in Canada and provides them to clients there. FINTRAC treats a business as directing services at Canada if at least one of these applies: marketing aimed at people or entities in Canada, a .ca domain, or a listing in a Canadian business directory.

The practical check is not “are they registered” but “are they registered for the thing I am asking them to do”. A firm registered for foreign exchange dealing and not for virtual currency is not a counterparty for stablecoin settlement, however genuine its registration.

How MSB registration works for a firm

If you are the firm rather than the counterparty, FINTRAC’s process (register your money services business) is:

1. Submit the pre-registration form. A FINTRAC compliance officer then sends you the registration form.
2. Complete it and gather the documents: criminal record checks, translations if needed, and documents confirming the entity’s existence and governance. Checks are required for the CEO, president, directors and each person owning or controlling 20% or more of the entity, and must be issued no more than six months before you submit.
3. Submit everything through the secure link FINTRAC sends you. The link expires within 15 days, and FINTRAC only accepts complete applications.

FINTRAC does not charge a registration fee. It says the majority of complete applications are processed within three months, and more complex ones can take longer. You must register before you begin to operate, and a foreign MSB must also name a representative for service who lives in Canada. Failure to register may result in administrative monetary penalties or criminal charges.

The six compliance program elements

Registration brings a compliance program obligation. FINTRAC sets out six elements (compliance program requirements). Training and the training plan are separate elements, and the review plan and the two-year review are one:

1. An appointed compliance officer, responsible for implementing the program, with the authority to do the job rather than the title alone.
2. Written compliance policies and procedures, kept up to date and, for an entity, approved by a senior officer.
3. A risk assessment of the business, documented, covering customers, products, delivery channels and geography.
4. A written, ongoing compliance training program for anyone whose work touches the obligations.
5. A training plan, documented, and the training delivered under it.
6. A documented plan for reviewing the program to test its effectiveness, with the review carried out every two years at a minimum.

FINTRAC also lists, among the changes starting on 26 March 2026, a requirement that compliance programs be reasonably designed, risk-based and effective (FINTRAC: upcoming changes).

Alongside the program sit reporting obligations, record-keeping, and the ministerial directives in force. FINTRAC lists three: Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (ministerial directives).

Penalties rose on 26 March 2026

A new penalty framework applies to violations that occur on or after 26 March 2026. It came in through the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, and FINTRAC says maximum penalty amounts rose to up to 40 times the previous limits (FINTRAC: penalty changes). The Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations set the range for each violation by category:

Violation category	Maximum per violation
Minor	CAD 40,000
Serious	CAD 4 million
Very serious	CAD 20 million

The Act then caps any single violation at CAD 4 million for an individual and CAD 20 million for an entity. All the violations on one notice together are capped too: for an entity, at the greater of CAD 20 million or 3% of its gross global revenue; for an individual, at the greater of CAD 4 million or 3% of gross global income. For an entity in an affiliated group, the 3% is worked out on the whole group’s gross global revenue.

Sources: section 5 of the Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations and sections 73.1 and 73.18 of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act. Violations that occurred entirely before 26 March 2026 stay under the previous framework and its lower penalty amounts.

Contravening a compliance order, a new enforcement tool, carries a separate and higher ceiling: for an entity, the greater of CAD 30 million or 3% of its gross global revenue; for an individual, the greater of CAD 5 million or 3% of gross global income (section 73.18 of the Act).

KwiikPay’s registration

KwiikPay is a trading name of KWP Finance Limited — registered in Canada as a Payment Service Provider under the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA), supervised by the Bank of Canada, and as a Money Services Business with FINTRAC, including dealing in virtual currency. KwiikPay is not authorised by the FCA. These are registrations, not licences. KwiikPay is not a bank; banking and e-money services are provided by regulated partner institutions.

The FINTRAC registration number is C100000942. As a worked example of the checks above: in the registry file checked on 23 October 2026, the entry for the legal name KWP Finance Limited shows the status Registered under that number, with Foreign Exchange, Money Transferring, Virtual Currency and PSP listed as services. Because KwiikPay is a trading name, search for the legal name or the number, not “KwiikPay”. Please verify it yourself rather than taking this page’s word for it; that is what the registry is for, and a provider that would rather you did not is telling you something.

The Bank of Canada registration is covered in RPAA registration, and our full position is on the compliance overview.