The Alberta Securities Commission says that during the second quarter ended September 30, it generated net income of $6,624,000 compared, to a net loss of $1,149,000 in the prior year.

In August, the ASC received a settlement payment of $7.6 million, following an insider trading investigation. This resulted in second quarter net income that exceeded the prior year by $ 7.7 million.

In addition to the large settlement, second quarter fee and investment revenues increased by $542,000, compared to the prior period. Investment income decreased $311,000. This was offset by $850,000 of additional fees from increased distributions and an increase in the number of prompt offering prospectus-qualified issuers who pay a greater financial statement fee.

Expenses for the period increased $282,000. The non-recurrence of prior period special investigation costs of $330,000 were offset in the current quarter by compensation increases of $508,000 for annual salary increases averaging 4% and 16 additional staff and $104,000 of other costs, primarily for office expansion and fee increases.

Fee increases averaging 8% on selected fees and totaling $714,000 are included in the current year’s budget. Fee increases commenced October 1, following public consultation. The commission received provincial government Order in Council approval for the fee regulation revisions in August.