The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) is taking a phased approach to harmonizing the continuing education (CE) requirements for investment dealers and fund dealers \u2014 with certain reforms to be finalized in the year ahead, and bigger potential changes to be considered down the road.<\/p>\n
The industry self-regulatory organization is proposing rule changes to harmonize the industry’s two CE programs, starting with the revisions that are expected to have a relatively minimal impact on firms and reps. In a future phase, it will undertake changes that could have more significant impacts on firms’ operations and systems, such as shifting to an annual CE cycle.<\/p>\n
The SRO is now seeking feedback on the first phase of the reform \u2014 which is due by March 18, 2025 \u2014 to address differences in areas such as record-keeping and reporting requirements, the approach to accreditation, and the types of courses that qualify for CE, among other things.<\/p>\n
For instance, the proposal would adopt the investment dealers’ approach to recordkeeping (making it the responsibility of firms alone); its approach to accreditation (no mandatory accreditation, no prescribed accreditors); and its principles-based approach to course approvals.<\/p>\n
It would take the fund dealers’ approach to repeating courses (allowing it), and voluntary participation in a CE program that extends the validity of baseline proficiency qualifications for one CE cycle (not allowed).<\/p>\n
And it would no longer allow reps to carry forward CE credits into future CE cycles, which would be a change for both sides.<\/p>\n
The first wave of changes would apply in the next CE cycle, while the SRO considers longer-term changes, such as syncing the CE cycle with the calendar year, and adopting an annual cycle.<\/p>\n
Both programs currently follow a two-year cycle, with the mutual fund cycle ending Nov. 30.<\/p>\n
In its paper, CIRO said that it’s considering a move to an annual CE cycle, which regulators in certain other jurisdictions currently use.<\/p>\n
“We believe that an annualized CE cycle requirement, consistent with the approach by other securities regulators, may lead to consistent updated training, enhance a firm’s general regulatory compliance and reduce its overall regulatory risk because of increased frequency and relevance of training,” it said.<\/p>\n
In the meantime though, CIRO is proposing changes that aim to resolve certain fundamental differences between the CE programs as soon as possible, while allowing more time to consider changes that could have a bigger impact on firms.<\/p>\n
Following the consultation, CIRO said that it intends to issue its final rules before the second half of 2025, and to implement the changes by Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SRO sets out common requirements, contemplates shift to annual CE cycle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147314,"featured_media":491434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2324,2312],"tags":[2820,2561,2394,2355,2776,2638,3609,2323,2326,2496],"yst_prominent_words":[1804,48104,18818,17789,8292,6694,6690,6145,5934,5305,5112,4822,4028,14],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498951"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498985,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498951\/revisions\/498985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498951"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=498951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}