The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that this country's financial-crime watchdog is finally baring its teeth. The Globe's Rita Trichur writes that the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada is sending a clear message that it will no longer give big banks a pass when they cut corners on compliance. FinTRAC this month disclosed financial penalties against RBC and CIBC for failing to flag suspicious transactions that were related to money-laundering and for other "administrative violations." Those announcements caused jaws to drop across the industry, including at banks in the United States, because they were the first instances of FinTRAC openly censuring any of the Big Six lenders. FinTRAC then followed up by announcing it was breaking with past practice and would provide the public with more details about violations that result in financial penalties henceforth -- a signal that its compliance crackdown will increase in the new year. Times have changed, and FinTRAC will no longer play nice with Bay Street. Chief executive officers and corporate directors at major banks must read the tea leaves and become directly engaged with anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist-financing efforts.