The Canadian Investor Protection Fund and the Investment Dealers Association of Canada have applied to the various provincial regulators to amend their Memorandum of Understanding between the industry contingency fund and the Canadian Securities Administrators to reflect efforts to reduce overlap between the two agencies.

They have also applied to the Ontario Securities Commission to amend its order approving CIPF as a compensation fund.

In today’s OSC Bulletin, the OSC published the joint application of CIPF and the IDA for comment, along with an amended CIPF by-law, and an amended MOU and amended approval order.

The joint application seeks the CSA’s approval for the realignment of regulatory responsibilities between CIPF and the IDA. The realignment would result in CIPF focusing on risk management, administration of member insolvencies, and payment of customer losses — it would no longer have an oversight role over the IDA.

The notice reports that, in response to the application, regulatory staff revised the current approach to oversight of CIPF, and they are proposing changes to the approval order and MOU to make them more consistent with those of other regulated entities. “The amended MOU will focus on matters of coordination of CSA oversight and CIPF’s reporting obligations. Other provisions that impose requirements on CIPF that are in the current MOU have been moved to the approval order,” it notes.

The amended approval order will establish terms and conditions for CIPF in various areas, including: corporate governance, funding, customer protection, financial and operational viability, and risk management*.*Comments are due by April 7.