A national database and real-time dissemination system was launched Thursday by Market Regulation Services Inc. (RS) to protect investors from unintentional violations of issuer cease trade orders.

The database contains the names of all Canadian companies whose shares have been cease-traded, including companies traded on the TSX and TSX Venture Exchanges, as well as Canadian companies traded in other jurisdictions.

The repository was developed by RS in collaboration with the dealer community and provincial securities commissions and funded by the B.C. Securities Commission. It will help solve the ongoing problem of timely CTO notification to investment dealers who previously had to search databases of each provincial securities commission to ensure they were not violating CTOs. The CTO database is also the only centralized source for CTOs of non-Canadian-exchange traded companies.

A CTO is issued against a company for failing to meet disclosure requirements, such as the filing of a quarterly financial statement, or as a result of an enforcement action that involves an investigation of wrongdoing.

“This new system is a cost-effective and extremely efficient service designed specifically to protect investors and meet the needs of investment dealers,” said Tom Atkinson, president & CEO of RS.

The database is publicly accessible through RS’s web site www.regulationservices.com. Investment dealers register with RS to receive real-time e-mail notification of issuer CTOs and anyone can search the library within the site for historical CTO information.

The proactive notification system will greatly diminish the risk of not complying with issuer CTOs, reducing exposure to disciplinary action by the securities commissions. More than 50 registered investment dealers in Canada have registered for the email notification system and RS expects all dealers to be registered by April 1.