Canada

Canada is a federal parliamentary jurisdiction and a high-income market for bank export finance, project finance and commercial real estate desks mapping country risk, official support and AML transparency. This datasheet summarises institutional identity, Export Development Canada as the national export credit agency, published FATF and sanctions posture, and federal individuals with significant control (ISC) publicity.

Jurisdiction identity

Canada combines federal and provincial or territorial law. Federally incorporated companies under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA) file with Corporations Canada. Many operating companies are provincially incorporated, so federal ISC publicity does not automatically cover every Canadian entity. Banking regulation, federal sanctions instruments and the national ECA sit at the federal layer that cross-border desks usually reference first.

Official export credit and Arrangement posture

Export Development Canada (EDC) is Canada's export credit agency and a Crown corporation. Canada's Export Development Act establishes its mandate to support and develop Canada's export trade and Canadian capacity to engage in that trade and to respond to international business opportunities. EDC describes itself as helping Canadian businesses of all sizes succeed internationally and as operating as a financially self-sustaining Crown corporation on commercial principles, often in partnership with other financial institutions. In 2017 the Government of Canada entrusted EDC with creating FinDev Canada as a development finance subsidiary. EDC is listed in the Berne Union member directory.

Canada is named by EXIM among the Participants to the OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits, together with the United States, Australia, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom. Arrangement disciplines therefore frame medium and long-term official Canadian support where those rules apply.

FATF and sanctions list posture

Canada is a FATF member. Membership signals participation in the global AML and counter-terrorist financing standard-setting body; evaluation outcomes are published by FATF separately.

Global Affairs Canada publishes the Consolidated Canadian Autonomous Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to specific sanctions regulations under the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) and the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (JVCFOA). The consolidated list is stated to be for administrative purposes only and is not itself a regulation with force of law. Accurate legal effect turns on the underlying regulations in which a person or entity is listed. Desks use the consolidated list as an administrative pointer for sanctions screening, alongside the regulations and any UN measures implemented in Canadian law.

Company and beneficial-ownership register notes

Since 22 January 2024, corporations created under the CBCA must file information on their individuals with significant control with Corporations Canada. Most CBCA corporations have been required to keep an ISC register since June 2019. An ISC generally includes a person who owns, controls or directs 25 percent or more of shares, or who has control in fact.

Corporations Canada states that some filed ISC information is made available to the public through its online search, including full legal name, dates of becoming or ceasing to be an ISC, a description of significant control, and address for service or, if none is provided, residential address. Date of birth, citizenship and tax residency fields are collected but are not in the public field set described by Corporations Canada. Searching by ISC name is not offered; search is by corporate name, corporation number or business number.

Provincial company registers and provincial beneficial-ownership regimes are not covered by the federal sources cited here and are recorded as an open item in this datasheet. This page records public-access posture only.

Summary

For Canada, desks typically align official support questions to EDC and Arrangement participation, AML standard posture to FATF membership, sanctions list checks to the Canadian autonomous list plus applicable regulations, and federal beneficial-ownership (UBO) publicity to Corporations Canada's ISC materials for CBCA companies.