Outside business activities are now simply “outside activities”

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have published final amendments to establish a more efficient registration and oversight process for firms, individuals and regulators, following a comment period that ended in May.

Notably, “outside business activities” are now referred to as “outside activities” in an effort to elicit better disclosure from registrants.

During the comment period, the CSA conducted a test of the proposed changes to the individual registration form, and found that people who viewed the forms with the proposed changes provided better disclosure than the people who viewed the existing form.

“There was an 8.4% improvement in accurately disclosing information by those participants that saw the proposals,” the CSA said in its notice. “In particular, there was a significant improvement in correct disclosures by participants who saw the proposals relating to outside activities.”

In addition to this language change, the amendments reduce the sorts of outside activities that must be reported to regulators to focus on positions that could generate conflicts of interest, such as activities involving other financial sector firms and roles of influence.

The regulators also introduced a new rule to replace the existing practice of imposing terms and conditions on reps with certain outside activities that restrict their client base; extended the deadline to report changes in registration information; and clarified other kinds of registration information requirements.

Other changes include a new rule to reduce multiple filings of the same information, revisions to reporting forms, a new requirement to report the professional titles used by reps, and an improved privacy notice.

Provided all ministerial approvals are obtained, the amendments will come into force on June 6, 2022.

However, registrants will have until June 6, 2023, to update their registration information.

“The submission of registration information represents an important touchpoint between regulators, firms and individuals,” said Louis Morisset, CSA chairman and president and CEO of the Autorité des marchés financiers. “The changes announced [Thursday] will streamline the Canadian framework for registration information, resulting in cost and time savings to registrants, while providing the CSA with the information it needs to carry out its regulatory function and protect investors.”

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.