Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) staff is proposing an order that would allow Toronto-based Canadian Depository for Securities Ltd. (CDS) to change its governance rules.
Specifically, Canada’s national securities, depository, clearing and settlement agency is looking to remove the requirement that one of its directors be a representative of a marketplace that’s not affiliated with TMX Group Ltd. and, at the same time, that CDS create a new committee to provide feedback from non-TMX trading venues to the board and management.
The existing director requirement “significantly reduces the pool of potential directors for one of the CDS board seats. We believe that CDS, its stakeholders and the public interest would be better served if the pool for this board seat was not limited to marketplace representatives,” CDS states in its application seeking the change.
At the same time, the clearing agency says that the proposed new committee would preserve representation within the organization for markets other than the TMX.
“This committee would give the non-TMX marketplaces an ability to participate on an equal basis with each other to bring forward matters to CDS, and would be structured to require the CDS board to address all recommendations brought forward by these marketplaces, including by requiring the CDS board to report annually in this regard to the OSC,” CDS says in its application.
The proposed order is out for comment until Sept. 17.