Canadian securities regulators have granted relief from certain regulatory requirements that will enable the distribution of contracts for difference (CFDs) to ordinary retail investors.

A CFD is a derivative that allows investors to obtain economic exposure to the price movement of an underlying financial instrument, such as a share, index, market sector, currency, treasury or commodity, without the need for ownership and physical settlement. It represents an agreement between the contract’s issuer and an investor to exchange the difference between the value of the underlying financial instrument at the opening of a position and the value of the same financial instrument at the closing of the position. They are distributed over-the-counter and are not transferable.

According to Friday’s OSC Bulletin, regulators received an application from CMC Markets seeking permission to issue CFDs via a shelf prospectus through its online trading platform.

CMC Markets is a global leader in online derivates trading. It has offices in Toronto, and around the world.

The company currently offers CFDs to “accredited investors” in Canada through its internet platform, and it “wishes to expand this platform to include non-accredited investors, the Bulletin notes. To do so, it proposes to file a short form shelf prospectus in connection with its offering of CFDs and become a reporting issuer; and to meet disclosure requirements by the combination of disclosure in the prospectus and the prospectus supplement, similar to recent prospectus offerings of linked notes.

The relief was granted, subject to certain conditions. According to the decision, CMC intends to file prospectus supplements for a variety of underlying instruments, such as: shares and other listed securities including exchange traded funds; indices; commodities; treasuries; and, foreign exchange.