01
KYC at every onboarding
Every client, individual or corporate, completes full identity verification before their first transaction. No exceptions and no provisional access.
Compliance & AML
Compliance, by design
Every relationship runs on the same underlying discipline: verified identity, documented funds, screened counterparties, and continuous transaction monitoring. It is the reason a deliberately small book is a feature rather than a limitation.
Standing
A registered money services business
Synterra Innovations Ltd. is registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada as a money services business. The registration is ours: the group does not refer clients to a third party's licence and then describe it as regulated infrastructure.
That distinction is what allows every fiat amount a client receives to trace back to a single documented exchange transaction with a regulated counterparty — the record a banking partner asks to see.
The registration covers exchange and paying-agent activity. It is not a deposit-taking licence, and we do not hold client funds: value converts in a single transaction and settles to an account in the client's own name.
Registration
Legal nameSynterra Innovations Ltd.
Corporation number1639649-6
RegulatorFINTRAC · Canada
MSB registrationN300000167
GroupWhales Corp AG
Registered officeOttawa, Ontario
Canada
Canada
Compliance contactinfo@synterrainnovations.ca
Registration status can be confirmed directly against FINTRAC's public MSB registry.
The four controls
Applied at every onboarding, and on every flow
Calibrated to each relationship's risk profile and jurisdiction, by Whales Corp AG and Synterra Innovations Ltd. together, and owned by Howard Brand as the officer designated under the entity's money services business registration. A control that annotates a record afterwards is a report; these decide whether the transaction happens.
02
Source of funds
Clients document the origin of funds above set thresholds, with enhanced review for higher-risk relationships.
03
PEP & sanctions screening
Every client and counterparty is screened against global PEP, sanctions and watchlist databases — at onboarding and on an ongoing basis.
04
Transaction monitoring
Every transaction is screened by TRM Labs blockchain analytics, flagging sanctioned addresses and funds of illicit origin.
Records
Documented end to end
As paying agent we retain full originator and beneficiary records on every executed instruction. Reconciliation and audit trails are maintained for each flow and made available to compliance and banking partners on request.
A question asked about a transaction two years after it settled is answered by reading the record, not by reconstructing it from logs.
Originator and beneficiary
Retained on every third-party payment we execute, for the period the applicable rules require.
One exchange per settlement
Each fiat amount settled traces to a single documented conversion with the registered entity — no chain of intermediaries to unpick.
Available on request
Reconciliation and audit trails are produced for compliance functions and banking partners without a special exercise.
Common questions
Asked by clients, advisers and banking partners
Do you take custody of client funds?
No — and that includes the EUR, GBP and USD rails. A conversion settles to an account in the client's own name, not to a balance held with us. Where we act as paying agent we execute a documented instruction rather than hold funds on a client's behalf. An exchange is a single transaction, not a deposit. At no point in the relationship do we take title to, or become the holder of, a client's funds.
Who is the regulated counterparty on an exchange?
Synterra Innovations Ltd., registered with FINTRAC as a money services business (N300000167) and wholly owned inside the Whales Corp AG group. The conversion is a single transaction with us, which is what makes the fiat a client receives traceable to one documented event.
What will you ask for at onboarding?
Full identity verification for the individual or the entity and its beneficial owners; documentation of the source of funds above set thresholds; and screening against sanctions, PEP and watchlist databases. Higher-risk relationships receive enhanced review. Most onboardings clear within days.
Do you decline business?
Regularly, and that includes introductions from partners. A partner agreement does not commit us to accepting a referred client, and a relationship that cannot document where its funds came from is not one we can take on at any size.
How do authorities or a banking partner make a request?
In writing, to info@synterrainnovations.ca, addressed to Howard Brand, the officer designated under the entity's money services business registration, at the registered office. Requests are answered against the retained record.