The board of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada has approved an amendment to by-law 5 Ownership of Securities, regarding brokerage employee’s ownership of their other firms.

The current rules of the IDA restrict industry investors including employees and officers of member firms from owning securities of member firm other than the firm in which the investor is approved, except in certain cases.

Under the current by-law a significant equity interest is defined as an investment that is more than $20,000 or that represents more than 2% of any class of issued equity or voting shares.

The rule has been amended in order to change the meaning of significant equity interest to mean an investment that is 10% or more of any class of issued equity or voting shares.