How the North Shore Got 28+ Currency Exchanges — And What the Apadana Collapse Reveals

What happened at Apadana

Apadana Currency Exchange, a money services business on Marine Drive in North Vancouver, froze all deposits, withdrawals and transactions this month. Owner Hamidreza Karimi has acknowledged that between 200 and 300 customers are collectively owed between $4 million and $5 million, and says he is working with a customer committee to declare his assets and find a way to repay them. Affected customers, many of whom had sent home-sale proceeds, life savings or funds earmarked for real estate purchases, have begun filing civil suits in provincial court to try to recover what they're owed.

So how many of these businesses are there?

The North Shore has been publicly arguing about exactly this question since 2021 — well before Apadana made headlines.

Both figures are official, on-the-record numbers tied to actual council votes, not informal counts. West Vancouver's bylaw was expanded in 2024 to also restrict crypto exchanges, gold and jewelry buyers and NFT dealers to upper floors — but no council report puts a verified combined total on those categories, so we're not going to estimate one here.

FINTRAC compliance isn't the same as protecting your money

As a REALTOR®, I go through FINTRAC training regularly, and I want to be precise about what that training actually covers — because currency exchanges are FINTRAC-regulated too, and it's easy to assume that means the same protections apply. They don't.

Real estate professionals and money services businesses (MSBs) are both "reporting entities" under the same federal law, the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act. Both of us have to verify client identity, keep records, and report large or suspicious transactions. MSBs additionally have to register directly with FINTRAC before they can operate at all.

But FINTRAC's mandate is anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist-financing — catching the suspicious movement of money. FINTRAC does not impose a trust-account segregation system equivalent to the one governing BC real estate brokerages, and it was never built to check whether a business can actually pay its customers back. FINTRAC registration is not deposit insurance, not a solvency guarantee, and not a guarantee of repayment.

How BC real estate protects your money — and where the limits are

This is the part I think people genuinely don't know, and it's worth laying out plainly, because it's the direct answer to "how are my funds held, and what happens if something goes wrong?"

That protection has real limits, and it's worth being upfront about them. BC's Special Compensation Fund can pay a maximum of $200,000 to a single claimant, and no more than $1,000,000 in total against a single brokerage, regardless of how many people are affected. Compensable losses must meet specific eligibility requirements and generally have to be established through a hearing on the evidence. Real estate has had real scandals too. The important difference is that regulators have specific powers to freeze trust accounts, investigate potential misconduct and, where eligibility requirements are met, consumers may have access to BC's Special Compensation Fund. That creates layers of protection that do not exist in the same form for customers of a money services business.

BC's system was tested directly in November 2025, when BCFSA froze the trust accounts of Jovi Realty and Lighthouse Realty amid an investigation connected to broker Balpreet Singh Bal, including allegations that roughly $2.75 million had been moved out of a trust account into Jovi's operating account and left there for more than a month. BCFSA suspended both brokerages' licenses later that month, and on April 2, 2026, the BC Supreme Court appointed an independent receiver, D. Manning & Associates Inc., to take control of the frozen accounts, reconcile them, and oversee distribution to affected parties. Consumers impacted by the matter may be eligible to seek compensation through the Special Compensation Fund, subject to its limits. None of the misconduct alleged in this matter has been established by a final regulatory or court finding.

In Ontario, the collapse of iPro Realty demonstrated another version of this protection system. By January 2026, RECO reported that approximately $5 million in consumer deposit claims had already been paid through the province's mandatory insurance program and said no consumers had been negatively impacted. A separate process for unpaid REALTOR® commissions was still underway at that point; RECO later committed to paying those claims in full as well, drawing on its insurance program's stability fund.

Both industries are regulated. They're just regulated for different risks. Real estate's system — trust accounts, audits, intervention powers, a compensation fund with real but defined limits — exists specifically to protect consumer funds. FINTRAC's system exists to catch money laundering and terrorist financing. Neither Apadana's customers, nor anyone using a currency exchange, has access to anything resembling the first kind of system.

What this means if you're moving money for a real estate deal

• Funds held in a BC real estate brokerage trust account are subject to the real estate trust-account requirements described above. Lawyers and notaries also operate regulated trust-account systems, although their rules, oversight and compensation arrangements are governed separately.
• Funds moved through a money services business are not subject to an equivalent trust-account segregation requirement. FINTRAC registration relates to anti-money-laundering compliance, not fund protection.
• Before moving significant sums through any channel, ask directly how the funds are held, whether the account is audited, and what compensation mechanism, if any, applies if something goes wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it illegal to run a currency exchange on the North Shore?

No. Money services businesses are legal and federally registered with FINTRAC. The municipal bylaws in West Vancouver and North Vancouver restrict where new ones can locate at street level; they don't ban the businesses themselves.

Does FINTRAC registration protect customers if a currency exchange becomes insolvent?

No. FINTRAC registration relates to anti-money-laundering and terrorist-financing compliance. It is not deposit insurance, a solvency guarantee, or a guarantee of repayment, and there is no compensation fund for money services business customers equivalent to what exists in real estate.

How is my money protected when I work with a real estate brokerage in BC?

Client funds must be held in a segregated, designated trust account, reconciled monthly, and verified annually by an independent accountant's report. BCFSA also runs its own risk-based audit program and can freeze a brokerage's trust accounts and seek a court-appointed receiver if misconduct is suspected. Where eligibility requirements are met, BC's Special Compensation Fund can provide compensation, capped at $200,000 per claimant and $1,000,000 in total per brokerage.

How many currency exchanges are there across the whole North Shore?

The only verified, sourced figures are 28 in the City of North Vancouver (as of the November 2024 bylaw) and roughly 13 in West Vancouver's Ambleside/Dundarave area (as of the 2021 count that prompted its bylaw). We don't have a reliable combined North Shore total, or a separate verified count for gold/jewelry/crypto businesses.