Quebec Minister of Finance, Monique Jérôme-Forget announced Tuesday the tabling of a new bill to implement certain elements of planned registration reform.

The bill will enable the Autorité des marchés (AMF) financiers to adopt harmonized regulations that, while extending the passport system to dealers and advisors, will impose new rules of conduct on them regarding their clients. “In this way, it follows up on the commitments made by the government to implement, with the other participating provinces and territories, a complete securities passport system,” the Quebec finance ministry says.

In particular, the bill stipulates that mutual fund managers must register with the AMF. It also imposes the obligation on dealers and advisors to designate a person from senior management to be responsible for seeing that the firm formulates and implements policies and procedures ensuring that the obligations arising from the securities legislation are satisfied, as well as a chief compliance officer who must see to it that the company does indeed satisfy these obligations. These persons will be subject, among other things, to competence and integrity criteria, it notes.

“Protection of investors is a priority for our government. This new regulatory framework will provide the Authority with additional means to ensure that each securities dealer, advisor, representative and fund manager has all the qualities required to adequately manage the savings of Quebec investors,” Jérôme-Forget said in a release.

IE