Northern Financial Corp. today reported that regulatory proceedings commenced by Market Regulations Services Inc. (RS) against Northern Securities Inc. have been adjourned indefinitely by order of an RS Hearing Panel on October 10, following Northern’s motion to dismiss the proceedings.
The adjournment was granted to permit the Ontario Securities Commission to consider an application by Northern for a hearing and review of decisions concerning the purported retroactive approval by the OSC of the TSX trading rules that are sought to be applied against the company in the RS regulatory proceedings.
In the context of the RS regulatory proceedings, on August 2, Northern delivered a motion record to RS in which the Northern claimed, among other things, that the TSX had not sought or obtained approval from the OSC to amend its rules to adopt the Universal Market Integrity Rules (UMIR) as required by the Protocol for Commission Oversight of the Toronto Stock Exchange Rules dated Oct. 3, 1997. The TSX is required to comply with the Protocol as a term of its recognition order by the OSC.
Following receipt of Northern’s motion materials, and after RS had sought and obtained an adjournment of the RS hearing, on September 21, he TSX applied to the OSC for purported retroactive approval of the UMIR amendments. Neither the TSX nor RS informed Northern or the hearing panel of its intention to do so either prior to or following RS’s request for an adjournment of the hearing. On September 29, the OSC published the UMIR Amendments in the OSC Bulletin and purported to approve these amendments.
The purported retroactive approval of the UMIR Amendments prompted the RS hearing panel to adjourn the RS proceedings without a fixed hearing date so as to permit Northern to apply to the OSC for a hearing and review of the actions of the TSX and OSC staff with respect to the purported retroactive amendments to the TSX Rules to adopt the UMIR Amendments.