The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Ottawa plans to sharply increase the amount that financial institutions and other companies can be fined for failures in their anti-money-laundering controls as the country faces growing pressure to tackle financial crime. The Globe's Alexandra Posadzki writes that the federal government's fall economic statement this week included a series of changes aimed at combatting financial crimes such as money laundering and terrorist financing, and proposes to increase financial penalties by as much as 40 times. Under the proposal, for example, a bank could be penalized as much as $20-million for failing to report a suspicious transaction, up from $500,000 currently. Total penalties would be capped at $20-million or 3 per cent of a company's annual worldwide revenue, whichever is higher. For individuals, the maximum penalty is to be set at $4-million for a single notice of violation. Canada's anti-money-laundering watchdog, FinTRAC, levies such penalties and is to take into account the company's ability to pay. Canada is under pressure to clamp down on money laundering through the country's financial system, particularly in the wake of compliance failures at TD Bank.