The Canadian Securities Transition Office has decided not to enter formal development agreements with the provinces that intend to participate in the creation of a national securities regulator.

In the transition plan released earlier this year the CSTO said that it would ask participating jurisdictions to enter agreements to formalize their intent to continue working on the development of the new regulator.

However, in an update published Friday, CSTO said that discussions with the participating jurisdictions made it clear that “formal agreements are not needed at this stage.”

In the meantime, the CSTO has begun staffing up with secondments from various provincial regulators. The Ontario Securities Commission’s chief human resources officer, Gayle Fisher, joined the CSTO on October 1 as chief of HR strategy, to focus on staffing and organization design.

Later this month, the OSC’s general counsel, Monica Kowal; the British Columba Securities Commission’s manager, legal services, corporate finance division, Noreen Bent; and the Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission’s deputy director, legal/registration, Dean Murrison, will also be joining the CSTO to work on developing its’ initial set of regulations.

Additionally, OSC vice chair Larry Ritchie, who has been serving as executive vice president and senior policy advisor for a term that was due to end Sept. 1, has extended that appointment for the remainder of his current term as vice chair of the OSC (which expires in February 2012).

IE