The Canadian Investment Funds Standards Committee released an updated version of its Retail Investment Fund Categories for public review and comment.

“The official rollout of these new category definitions will represent the return to a single fund category standard for Canadian investment funds, making Canada one of the few jurisdictions in the world with such a standard in place.” said Chris Adair, chairman of the CIFSC.

The CIFSC’s mandate is to create and maintain a single objective, standardized, transparent and consistent set of investment fund categories for the benefit of investors and other participants in the Canadian investment fund industry. It is committed to reviewing the category definitions annually to ensure they remain up to date and reflective of the range of investment fund products available.

Comments and feedback on the new categories are due May 11, and the CIFSC expects to release final versions of the new categories in early June.

“We look forward to receiving feedback from any interested parties on our new categories and to the eventual release of the updated category definitions once the feedback that is received has been taken into account,” said Adair.