In an effort to ease financial pressure on the securities industry, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is scrapping late fees until June 1.

The regulator estimated that the temporary relief will save industry firms, issuers and insiders more than $300,000.

“The current pandemic has made it difficult for businesses, particularly smaller firms that manage Ontarians’ investments, to make filings and payments on time,” said Grant Vingoe, acting chair and CEO of the OSC.

“To alleviate some of these pressures, we are not collecting late fees at this time,” he said.

The relief waives all late fees between April 17 and June 1.

The OSC also said that it will consider additional late fee relief due to the pandemic for fees incurred before April 17.

The regulator noted that it “continues to monitor the situation and will reassess if further late fee relief is needed.”

Earlier this week, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada also announced it has deferred fee collections for small and mid-sized firms to provide them with some additional breathing room.