Securities regulators have granted dealer members of self-regulatory organizations a 12-month exemption from new disclosure requirements that are due to take effect later this month under registration reform.

In Friday’s Ontario Securities Commission Bulletin, it is reported that the Canadian Securities Administrators are giving investment dealers and mutual fund dealers an exemption from new disclosure requirements that are scheduled to take effect on Sept. 28 as part of the registration reform rule. The new requirements are designed to improve firms’ disclosure to clients about their respective roles and duties, and fees, among other things.

Similar requirements are to be imposed by the dealers’ respective self-regulatory organizations (the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada) under the “client relationship model” reforms that the SROs have been working on for several years.

The MFDA finalized its proposed reforms earlier this year, but is still awaiting ratification by the organization’s members at its annual meeting in December. IIROC is still finalizing the latest version of its CRM proposals, which will then be released for public comment.

The bulletin indicates that, as the SRO requirements will not be in effect by the deadline under the registration reform rule, each regulator has issued an order that exempts dealers that are members of IIROC, the MFDA, and mutual fund dealers in Quebec, from those requirements until the SRO requirements take effect, or until September 28, 2011, whichever comes first.

IE