TORONTO – Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. has agreed to pay a little over $100 million in a settlement reached with three U.S. financial regulators for “wilful violations” of anti-money laundering laws.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) says Canaccord’s “widespread compliance failures” include not conducting proper customer due diligence and not setting up appropriate internal controls to detect suspicious activity.
It says the lapses resulted in Canaccord failing to timely detect and report numerous securities fraud schemes that caused significant economic harm to innocent investors.
The settlement reached with FinCEN, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network includes a $109.4 million civic penalty, which FinCEN says is the largest ever imposed against a broker-dealer for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
Canaccord says it expects to pay about $102.6 million as a portion of the penalty was suspended, pending a satisfactory review of its suspicious activity reports.
Canaccord lead independent director Michael Auerbach says in a news release that the firm’s board is satisfied that the regulatory matters are resolved and that there’s been a wholesale change of compliance leadership and oversight at Canaccord.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX:CF)
