OTTAWA -- The Canada Revenue Agency wants the country’s largest bank to turn over more than 40 years of client records related to Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers tax avoidance scandal.

The CRA launched legal proceedings in Federal Court on Wednesday, seeking a court order compelling the Royal Bank of Canada to produce the records.

The legal move is the first sign that CRA is making good on its promise to investigate Canadians who may have used offshore companies set up by Mossack Fonseca to dodge taxes.

According to affidavit filed by a CRA investigator, RBC is cooperating and will not oppose the request for the order.

Rachid Fizazi of CRA’s aggressive tax planning directorate refers in his affidavit to media reports on the Panama Papers and descriptions of Mossack Fonseca as one of the world’s largest creators of shell companies.

“I believe those media reports to be true,” he says in the document.

Fizazi says that Canadian taxpayers who hold property or do business through offshore entities “may not comply with their duties” under the Income Tax Act.

The CRA wants RBC to provide client records dating back to January 1976, until April 30, 2016.

More than 11 million documents detailing Mossack Fonseca’s clients and their businesses -- the so-called Panama Papers -- were leaked to a consortium of media organizations, which reported on their contents in April. .

They reported that RBC used Mossack Fonseca to set up 370 offshore entities.

In response, RBC’s chief executive officer David McKay last month said that he had a team of staff looking at any dealings the bank had with Mossack Fonseca..

Asked by CTV why it isn’t challenging CRA’s request for the records, RBC spokesperson Catherine Hudon wrote, “We respect the confidentiality of our clients within the bounds of the law, and we cooperate with all of our regulators.”

National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier said last month she had instructed CRA to obtain a copy of the 11.5 million Panama Papers documents. But Fizazi’s affidavit suggests that hasn’t happened yet.

“To the best of my knowledge, the CRA does not know the identity of RBC Clients disclosed in the Panama Papers whose RBC files are related, connected or attached to Mossack Fonseca,” he said.

The court has yet to grant the order CRA requested and none of the allegations made in the application and affidavit have been tested in court.

It is unclear if CRA will attempt to obtain similar records from other Canadian banks.

CRA has launched 40 audits related to Mossack Fonseca, CRA Chief Executive Officer Andrew Treusch told the House of Commons finance committee Thursday.

“The CRA now has tens of thousands of records from multiple sources,” he said. “The agency will use this and any other data collected from various sources to ensure all Canadian taxpayers identified from the Panama Papers are pursued.”