OSC Annual Summary Report for Dealers, Advisers and Investment Fund Managers

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently released its Annual Summary Report for Dealers, Advisers and Investment Fund Managers (the Report), providing a summary of new and proposed rules, initiatives and current compliance trends resulting from the OSC’s review of registrants and their activities. The Report provides a detailed overview of the OSC’s views with respect to many topics, and registrants are recommended to thoroughly review the Report and use it as a self-assessment tool to strengthen their compliance systems.

The Report can be accessed here.

Certain items included in the Report are highlighted below.

Information for dealers, advisers and investment fund managers

• Inadequate referral arrangements
• Incomplete or inadequate books and records
• Failure to provide notice of ownership changes or asset acquisitions
• Incomplete applications for exemptive relief
• Changes to participation fee calculations
• Outside business activity disclosure
• Failure to complete KYC, KYP and suitability assessments
• Inappropriate “renting out” of EMD registrations
• Inadequate supervision of dealing representatives
• Failure of EMDs to provide adequate disclosure of underwriting conflicts
• Failure to provide adequate relationship information
• Inadequate written policies and procedures on portfolio management
• Inadequate updating of client’s KYC and suitability information
• Inadequate collection of client’s insider status
• Commingling of client assets by IFMs

Registration of firms and individuals

• Update on pre-registration reviews
• Voluntary surrenders of registration
• Peer-to-peer lending (P2P)
• Common deficiencies in firm registration filings
• Changes to firm registration filings
• Common deficiencies in individual registration filings, including with respect to the improper use of reinstatement notices and reactivations of registrant applications
• Non-disclosure or late disclosure of information previously submitted by individuals on their Form 33-109F4s.