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(September 15, 2006) The securities commissions of Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have approved orders to provide greater transparency of insider trading.

The order requires the TSX and the TSX Venture Exchange to consolidate all trades by insiders and to publicly disseminate the information in summary form at the end of each trading day.

These end-of-day insider trade summaries are expected to provide greater transparency of the Canadian capital markets. The order flows from the Insider Trading Task Force established in 2002, which was set up to evaluate how best to address illegal insider trading in the Canadian capital markets.

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CBA head retires

(September 15, 2006) Raymond Protti is retiring after working 10 years as president and CEO of the Canadian Bankers Association.

Although Protti won’t step down until 2007, the early announcement is intended to allow the CBA time to pick his successor.

In recent years, Protti’s tenure as head of the CBA has been defined by his fight against restrictions that prohibit banks from providing insurance-related information in branches. He has consistently maintained these restrictions are not in the consumer’s best interests. Protti has also been a strong advocate of a single regulatory regiment for governments, investors and businesses looking for capital.

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IA Clarington refocuses fund lineup

(September 15, 2006) IA Clarington Investments Inc. is simplifying its fund lineup and lowering the fees on three of its funds, as part of an aggressive shakeup announced Friday.

IA plans to merge nine funds into other mutual funds it manages. At the same time, the company intends to shift the management for two funds, reduce management fees on three funds, close two small funds, and align commission schedules across its fund lineup.

Explaining the company’s decision, David Scandiffio, president of IA Clarington, said IA is “moving forward with a more focused lineup, which combines strong internal investment management capabilities with products from leading external money managers from Canada and abroad.”

The funds impacted are as follows:

Merging fund		Continuing fund
Clarington Money Market Fund	>>	R Money Market Fund(*)
Clarington Canadian Bond Fund	>>	R Bond Fund(*)
R High Yield Bond Fund	>>	R Bond Fund(*)
IA Clarington Dividend Income Fund	>>	R Dividend Income Fund
IA Clarington Canadian Conservative Equity Fund	>>	IA Canadian Conservative Equity Fund
R Global Growth Fund	>>	Clarington Global Equity Fund
R European Fund
R Asian Fund
R Life & Health Fund
* At the time of the mergers, R Money Market Fund and R Bond Fund will be renamed IA Money Market Fund and IA Bond Fund, respectively.

In addition to the mergers, IA will shift the portfolio management for the Clarington Diversified Income Fund and the Clarington Income Trust Fund to Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. However, the investment objectives and strategies of the two funds will not change.

Rockwater Capital Corp. subsidiary, KBSH Capital Management Inc., was also affected by IA’s fund shakeup. IA Clarington is terminating a third-party mandate for three mutual funds where KBSH had been acting as advisor.

The impact on the sub-advisor is expected to be minimal, as fees associated with the funds are being lowered. KBSH will continue to manage two IA Clarington closed-end funds with assets of approximately $110 million.

In the same announcement, IA said it plans to reduce the management fees on the Series A units of the Clarington Diversified Income Fund and the Clarington Income Trust Fund to 2%. The reduction is expected to lower the MER by about 10 basis points.

The management fee is also being lowered on the Series A units of the Clarington Global Equity fund to 2%. Based on the fund’s current cost structure, the cut should lower the MER of the fund by 27 basis points to 2.53%. All fee changes will take effect on November 17, 2006.

As part of the integration of the Industrial Alliance Fund Management and ClarintonFunds product lineups, IA is adjusting its commission schedules and deferred sales charge schedules to be consistent to all funds. To align the DSC schedules, the company is adopting the DSC redemption fee schedule currently applied to Clarington funds.

The company will use the low load-sales commission and redemption fee structure applied to the R and IA funds. It will also increase the sales commission paid to dealers on sales of low-load units from 2.25% to 2.5%.

Finally, IA Clarington said it plans to close IA Crystal Enhanced Index America Fund and Clarington Canadian Resources Class because of their small size and their future asset growth potential. Each of the two funds has less than $3 million in assets. The closures will take effect November 17.

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Rockwater changes investment management mandate

(September 15, 2006) On the same day that Rockwater’s subsidiary lost a sub-advisor contract, the parent company decided to rebrand its own mutual fund platform as Lakeview Asset Management.

Funds currently managed under the Disciplined Leadership Group name have been moved over to the Lakeview banner. At the same time, four new funds advised by Rockwater subsidiary KBSH have been added to the Lakeview family of funds.

Lakeview has recently increased its fund sales force and plans to launch additional products managed by “a top-ranked money manager.”

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CI Investments looks to merge two Skylon trusts

(September 15, 2006) CI Investments is planning to merge Skylon Capital Yield Trust into the High Yield & Mortgage Plus Trust.

According to CI, the two trusts have similar mandates, in that both provide exposure to high-yield debt securities, including corporate bonds and bank loans. Both high-yield portfolios are managed by Barry Allan of Toronto-based Marret Asset Management Inc. The one notable difference is that the High Yield & Mortgage Plus Trust also invests in commercial mortgage-backed securities.

Despite similarities in the two trusts’ mandates and historic returns, CI says in a release that Skylon Capital Yield Trust is required to pay larger monthly distributions than High Yield & Mortgage Plus Trust, which has reduced its capital.

The proposed merger is planned for April 30, 2007, to coincide with the maturity of Skylon Capital Yield Trust, subject to unitholder approval.

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TD Bank Financial Group discloses hedge arrangement

(September 15, 2006) TD Bank Financial Group has entered into an arrangement that could provide the bank a financial hedge for potential future purchases of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. common stock.

The terms of the TD Ameritrade Stockholders Agreement limit TD Bank’s ownership of the U.S. discount brokerage to 39.9% of the outstanding voting securities. This limit will increase to 45% in January 2009. The arrangement will provide TD Bank with price protection when it increases its holding in 2009.

The arrangement, which is between a subsidiary of TD Bank and Lillooet Ltd., a company sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada, will permit a hedge in respect of up to 27 million shares of TD Ameritrade common stock.

Under the deal, Lillooet must make a payment to TD in early 2009 in the event that the trading price of TD Ameritrade shares has increased. If price of the common stock falls, TD Bank will pay Lillooet a specified amount related to the decrease.

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Pier 21 casts off with new strategies

(September 15, 2006) Pier 21 Asset Management, an independent institutional asset-management firm, is offering 10 strategies in the first phase of its product platform launch.

All of the management functions will be outsourced to sub-advisors with long-term track records. Pier 21’s equity strategies will include global, EAFE, European, emerging markets and emerging technology, as well as core and high-yielding global fixed-income strategies. In the absolute-return category, the firm offers global and emerging-market strategies and a global fixed-income strategy.

In a release, David Star, the founder, president and CEO of Pier 21, notes that fewer than 10% of the investment management providers in Canada manage more than 70% of the institutional assets in global and international equity. “This concentration of control does not reflect the opportunities truly available beyond Canadian borders, nor does it support the increasing demand for skilled investment management in international asset classes.”

The company aims to broaden the scope of investment opportunities. Pier 21 is registered as an investment advisor in Quebec. Registration in other provinces is expected to follow.

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SSQ expands seg fund offering with Saxon

(September 15, 2006) SSQ Financial has added one of Saxon Financial’s mutual funds to its ASTRA line of segregated funds.

The new fund will consist of units of the Saxon Stock Fund, a value fund managed by the Howson Tattersall management team.

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