Canaccord Capital Inc. may not be public yet, but it has already received regulatory relief from filing insider trading repots for its nominal vice presidents.
The practice of granting these exemptions was devised to accommodate the banks with their numerous empty titles.
Currently, the firm has 139 employees who are considered to be insiders under the legislation. About 80 meet the criteria for exemption, as they are not in charge of a principal business unit, division or function of the firm, or a “major subsidiary”. As well, they do not typically have access to material facts or material changes concerning the firm before the public does; and they are not otherwise considered insiders.
The firm says that it will establish by the time of filing its final prospectus in respect of its initial public
offering internal policies and procedures relating to monitoring and restricting the trading activities of certain of its insiders and others. Its draft policies include blackout period policies and requirements for pre-clearance of trades. The policies also relate to identification and handling of nonpublic material information and prohibit improper communication and use of such information.