Securities regulators are planning to review proposed changes to the way in which the Canadian Depository for Securities Ltd. (CDS) charges fees.
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published a notice Thursday spelling out how it proposes to examine proposed changes to CDS’ fee schedule, which was submitted to regulators (the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), and the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC)) back in November 2014.
According to the notice, CDS intends to amend its issuance and eligibility fees, and to start charging “entitlement and corporate action event management” fees to issuers, either directly, or through their transfer agents. “This is the first CDS proposal under which it proposes to charge users who are non-participants for certain key depository services it provides,” the CSA notes.
The regulators’ notice spells out its approach to reviewing the proposed amendments, including the issuer fee proposal. “The overall objective of the review is to determine whether the proposed fees are fair, equitable and appropriate and balance the need for CDS to maintain sufficient resources to provide critical functions,” it says.
The review will be guided by several principles including fair access to CDS’ services, equitable allocation of fees and costs, that fee structures be commercially reasonable and non-discriminatory, and that they provide sufficient resources to CDS.