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.
