The Ontario Securities Commission issued a notice on Friday advising that the Standing Committee of the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions has published a report regarding conflicts of interest that may arise when market intermediaries are involved in securities offerings.

The IOSCO report, which is out for a 90-day consultation period, deals with the issues of addressing conflicts of interest, in particular the management of information flows in conflicted situations. The OSC says that the report outlines the circumstances where conflicts arise, discusses approaches for addressing conflicts, and provides examples of using mechanisms to address conflicts.

The commission encourages the Canadian investment industry to comment on the report. The comment period will remain open until May 25. After the consultation process, the comments will be reviewed and a final report will be prepared.

The report can be downloaded from IOSCO’s website at: http://www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD235.pdf.