The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has finalized a rule that will make electronic filing mandatory for certain regulatory forms.
The rule will require that a number of documents that are currently filed with the commission in paper format will now have to be filed electronically. This generally includes documents that aren’t already covered by the electronic filing systems, SEDAR, SEDI and NRD, such as exempt distribution reports.
The regulator says that mandatory electronic filing will streamline the submission process and reduce the regulatory burden; improve its data analysis, compliance and enforcement capabilities by requiring more reports in a machine-readable format; and, reduce the effort and time required to process and analyze the documents, allowing it to focus resources on more substantive matters.
Initially many of the required documents will continue to be filed in unstructured format, typically as a PDF. But the commission intends to migrate many of these documents to web-based forms and structured data.
The final rule was delivered to the Minister of Finance on October 30. If the minister approves it, or does not take any further action by December 30, the rule will come into force on Feb. 19, 2014.