The Canadian Securities Administrators is publishing for comment proposed amendments to its rules regarding the National Registration Database.

The CSA are proposing four changes to the rules affecting Multilateral Instrument 33-109 – Registration Information, Companion Policy 33-109CP, Multilateral Instrument 31-102 – National Registration Database, and Companion Policy 31-102CP.

References to Quebec will be included in the instrument, making it into a national instrument. The term “non-registered individual” will be changed to “permitted individual”. Several deadlines for reporting changes to information filed on NRD will be changed. Finally, firms will now be required to advise the regulator of a change in financial year end and of a change in auditor.

Quebec joined the National Registration Database on January 1, 2005, and so the rules must be updated to reflect that fact. The change from “non-registered individual” to “permitted individual” is a technical change too.

The most significant change may be to the filing deadlines. Current deadlines are based on the pre-NRD system in which registrants submitted information to the regulator, and the regulator input the changes into its computers. With NRD, registrants bear the responsibility of inputting their own information, and for maintaining records of proof for that information. With this increased load on registrants, the CSA says that firms have found that some of the deadlines are too short.

Finally, applicants for registration are required to submit information to the regulator about their financial year end and auditor, but they are not currently required to inform the regulator of any changes to that information. The proposed revisions will close this gap immediately, requiring registrants to inform the regulator of changes to their financial year end or to their auditor within five business days of the change.

“We anticipate that the proposed amendments will reduce the time, costs, and inconvenience of a firm filer associated with confusion over why a non-registered individual has to register, and with deadlines that were too short in certain instances,” the CSA says.

Comments are due by August 10.

Also, the CSA have amended the rules regarding the National Registration System to require that a firm select as its principal regulator the regulator in the jurisdiction where the filer’s head office is located.