A notice published Wednesday by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada sets out how the transition to new registration categories will take place, as a result of the Canadian Securities Administrators’ registration reform.

The notice provides guidance on how IIROC will be transitioning current reps and other registered individuals from the existing approval categories to proposed new registration categories under the CSA reform initiative. That reform will see securities regulators changing the basis of registration and streamlining and harmonizing registration categories among various jurisdictions.

New IIROC categories were previously published for comment on Sept. 26, 2008 as part of a number of proposed registration reform related changes to IIROC’s rules. Among other things, it proposes reducing the current 46 categories to 11 categories, which will focus solely on functions. The type of customer (retail or institutional), the type of product and whether the individual engages in portfolio management will be tracked separately as information items.

Also, under the proposed IIROC rule changes, all individuals approved in the categories of “partner”, or “officer” will be converted to the new category of “executive”. A bulk submission facility will be made available to firms with more than 10 executives.

These proposed amendments have not yet been adopted, and are subject to both IIROC board and CSA approvals. If approved, these amendments will come into force on the same date as the CSA reforms.

IE