The Investment Dealers Association has approved a by-law requiring participation in the national registration database.

The IDA says that By-law 40 brings together all of the applications for approval requirements previously found in its by-laws and regulations and mandates participation in the NRD. Exceptions are provided for applications from firms in Quebec.

The details of By-law 40 are based on the requirements of national rules, through which all provincial securities regulatory authorities, except the Autorité des marchés financiers, have mandated use of the NRD system. However, By-law 40 includes revisions to certain transitional requirements consistent with changes made since the implementation of NRD by the participating securities regulatory authorities through various orders and exemptions.

The IDA says that the only substantive change to the by-laws is the replacement of the previous requirement for approval of the opening of branch and sub-branch offices with a requirement simply to notify the IDA. Firms also are required to verify the information in NRD on their branch and sub-branch offices and correct any errors or omissions by Feb. 28, 2005, as this information was brought in from several legacy databases and may not be complete and accurate.

In a separate regulatory notice, the IDA also says that under By-law 40, for any IDA member office located outside of Canada, IDA approval is still required for the foreign office and for the officers/directors of the firm. As NRD does not accommodate office openings outside of Canada, firms are to file for approval with: evidence that the persons to be employed in such office are registered or licensed to carry on the business that is intended to be carried on at that office, under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the office will be located; and, in the case of a proposed sub-branch, evidence that the proposed sub-branch office is within the same territorial jurisdiction as the branch office designated as having supervisory responsibility for such sub-branch office.