The Canadian Securities Administrators are planning to implement registration reform at the end of September, according to a staff notice published Friday.

The CSA said that it will publish the final version of the registration reform rule in July, and expects to have it take effect Sept. 28. The earlier versions of the rule propose to overhaul the wide range of registration categories that apply across the country, streamlining and harmonizing them. Fund managers and some dealers would face new requirements under the proposed rule.

CSA Staff Notice 31-311 sets out several items that the CSA believes registrants, or aspiring registrants, should be aware of, including proposed changes to the National Registration Database, the conversion by firms and individuals to new categories of registration and the transition period to comply with new requirements.

Various transition periods will apply, ranging from just three months for certain changes to two years for others, such as new requirements for mutual fund dealer client statements and the adoption of independent dispute resolution services.

Domestic fund managers will generally have 12 months to apply for registration, whereas foreign-based firms will get two years. The CSA said that it will publish a proposal for comment during the next year to explain under what circumstances an investment fund manager that has a head office outside Canada would need to register.

As part of the transition, the NRD is scheduled to be shut down from September 25 to October 12, it says, to allow for the conversion to new categories of registration. During this time, firms would have read-only access to the database and would need to submit material information to their securities regulator and then re-file that material on the NRD after the database reopens.

IE