The Ontario Securities Commission today announced it has approved the distribution plans that will see five Canadian mutual fund companies disburse $205.6 million to investors.

The fund companies — a AGF Funds Inc., AIC Ltd, CI Investments Inc., I.G. Investment Management, Ltd., and Franklin Templeton Investment Corp. — agreed to pay this amount after settlements were entered into with the OSC in December 2004 and March 2005.

The plans are to be implemented before the end of September.

The OSC says it has received confirmation from CRA International Ltd., the independent consultant retained by the fund companies, that the distribution plans will accomplish a fair allocation of the payments among affected investors in a timely and cost-effective manner.

CRA has also confirmed that the plans include provisions that deal reasonably with circumstances in which the registered unitholders are not the beneficial owners of the units in question.

“We are pleased that the fund companies have been able to develop these plans efficiently and that the timetable achieved will result in investors receiving the payments three months earlier than contemplated by the settlements,” said OSC chairman David Brown, in a release. “The investors were always our first priority in this probe and it is only appropriate that funds be returned to them as quickly as possible.”

Copies of the plans of distribution by the fund companies. are available online on the OSC’s web site.

http://www.osc.gov.on.ca