CSA lightens the load on investment funds

The Canadian Securities Administrators are adopting a series of changes to rules for investment funds aiming to eliminate duplication, reduce regulatory approvals and otherwise curb needless compliance chores.

The CSA published final amendments on Thursday for eight burden reduction measures for investment funds. The measures streamline annual disclosure requirements, cut filing demands and trim the need for certain regulatory approvals.

“These initiatives are wide-ranging and will result in cost and time savings to investment funds and their managers, while maintaining investor protection and market efficiency,” said Louis Morisset, chair of the CSA and president and CEO of the Autorité des marchés financiers, in a release.

The provisions were previously published for comment in 2019 and any changes that the regulators made since are not considered material, so most of the new rules will take effect in January 2022.

However, firms will have until September 2022 to comply with a couple of the changes: consolidating prospectus and annual information form filings into a single annual filing, and requiring funds to designate a website to post regulatory disclosure documents.

The CSA said this package of amendments will be followed by additional measures to curb compliance costs for investment funds. The next phase will consider changes to the prospectus filing regime, continuous disclosure, alternatives for delivering disclosure to investors, and other matters.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.