Mar 26, 2020 | COVID-19, FAQs, Regulatory Compliance
Answer: The pandemic is likely to be a life event for many individual clients, who might experience, among other things, a loss or significant decrease in employment or business income, a significant decrease in the value of their investments, and/or become seriously...
Feb 28, 2020 | Investment Funds, Regulatory Compliance
On February 3, the Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA) released A Proposal for a Modern SRO (Special Report) and an accompanying Guiding Framework. The MFDA recommends that the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) take over direct regulation of markets while...
Feb 28, 2020 | FAQs, Regulatory Compliance
Answer: Registrants have an obligation to deal fairly, honestly and in good faith with their clients. Among other things, this means that registrants must ensure that their marketing materials (and any representations that they make in social media) are clear,...
Feb 28, 2020 | Client-Focused Reforms (CFRs), News, Regulatory Compliance
To make your life easier, we have consolidated the articles we’ve written to date on the client-focused reforms (CFRs) to National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations into a snappy, little(ish) guide,...
Feb 28, 2020 | Cyber-security and Data Privacy, Regulatory Compliance
On January 28, the Office of the Privacy Commission (OPC) published its Proposals for Ensuring Appropriate Regulation of Artificial Intelligence (Consultation Paper). This work is a subset of a larger reform project focused on federal privacy laws. According to the...
Jan 31, 2020 | Client-Focused Reforms (CFRs), Featured, Regulatory Compliance
In this bulletin: Client-Focused Reforms: A Closer Look at the Misleading Communications, RDI, Compliance Training and Record-Keeping Rules IIROC and FINRA Publish Their Compliance Priorities for 2020 Get Ready to RAQ and Roll IIROC Fines Registered Representative for...
Jan 31, 2020 | News, Regulatory Compliance
Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) staff have begun notifying registrants that they will receive a risk assessment questionnaire (RAQ) on April 15. The OSC uses the information collected from these bi-annual questionnaires as part of its risk-based supervision...
Jan 31, 2020 | Client-Focused Reforms (CFRs), Regulatory Compliance
As we reported in our October 2019 special bulletin, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have finalized their client-focused reforms (CFRs) to National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations (NI 31-103) and...
Jan 31, 2020 | Regulatory Compliance
A recent settlement between the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and a registered representative (Representative) at Scotia Capital Inc. (Scotia) illustrates the importance for individual registrants of following through on their...
Jan 31, 2020 | Corporate Finance, Corporate Law, Regulatory Compliance
On January 16, the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) published Staff Notice 45-705 Compliance with Investment Limits under the Offering Memorandum Prospectus Exemption (the Notice). It outlines the results of staff’s recent review of over 80,000 (!) recent...
Jan 31, 2020 | FAQs, Regulatory Compliance
Answer: The Investment Industry Regulator Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) have rules against such arrangements. Although these rules do not apply to non-member firms and their employees, they reflect a general...
Jan 31, 2020 | Regulatory Compliance
On December 20, 2019, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) published its annual compliance report, which covers recent and current initiatives as well as 2020 priorities. And on January 9, 2020, the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory...
Jan 31, 2020 | Corporate Finance, Corporate Law, Regulatory Compliance
On March 11, 2021, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published guidance to improve the quality of disclosure for crypto asset reporting issuers to help investors make informed investment decisions. We have previously reported on CSA guidance on the...