The board of directors of the Investment Dealers Association has approved an amendment to its regulations cutting fees for certain clients of the Inter-Dealer Bond Brokerages.

The amendment removes the requirement in the Outside Canada Firm Agreement that fees be charged to or levied on Outside Canada Firms, customers of Inter-Dealer Bond Brokerages. These fees reflect what an Outside of Canada Firm would have paid to the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and the IDA if it had been within the jurisdiction of the fund.

The IDA says that the removal of these fees for these customers of Inter-Dealer Bond Brokerages, “were necessary to level the playing field in the wholesale debt markets because customers of Alternative Trading Systems will not be subject to these fees.”

It notes that Alternative Trading Systems are scheduled to become members of the IDA and to begin operating in the retail and wholesale debt markets. Due to this, it was necessary to make the amendment “in order to foster fair and transparent competition within the wholesale debt markets”.

The amendment is effective as of January 1, 2003.