Key Milestones and Expected Regulatory Developments for the Investment Management Industry

This publication The Year Ahead – 2015 is new. It is intended to help you keep track of regulatory developments and prepare for new regulatory deadlines and also to know what can be expected during the coming year.

Securities regulation has long been a fact of life for participants in Canada's investment management industry. The success of the Canadian industry is driven to a large degree by the industry's embrace of the necessity for a strong regulatory regime. But the industry's continued growth has attracted close attention from the Canadian Securities Administrators (the CSA) and investor advocates (including FAIR Canada) in recent years, which has translated into enhanced regulatory expectations and a relentless drive to seek additional protections for retail investors. We understand the challenges for the industry in keeping pace with the regulatory changes, both in monitoring deadlines and understanding what may be coming next.

The Investment Management Group of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) keeps close watch on regulatory developments. We work with our clients and others in the industry to allow them to meet the regulatory challenges and to understand the new requirements and to know how they should be implemented. We regularly publish Bulletins and Alerts describing developments in securities regulation as it applies to the Canadian investment management industry, as well as identifying issues in the regulation and how it must be implemented.

This Bulletin provides a chronological time-line of regulatory deadlines and new and expected publications and regulatory announcements. Our 2015 time-line summarizes known upcoming deadlines, as well as our best estimate of expected timing of regulatory proposals or final rules. It is intended as a comprehensive snap-shot of the coming year for industry participants operating in all jurisdictions of Canada, although it must be recognized that the timing of regulatory initiatives is subject to change. And in some cases, the expected timing of initiatives based on information from the CSA and other sources is non-specific ("Spring 2015" or "during 2015").

Although our time-line does not specifically call out MFDA or IIROC publications, both self-regulatory organizations have published reports of their priorities for 2015. The MFDA's 2015 regulatory priorities were outlined in their February 19, 2015 publication entitled 2015 Compliance and Member EducationPriorities and IIROC's 2015 regulatory priorities were discussed in their January 27, 2015 publication entitled Annual Consolidated Compliance Report.

We hope that you will find this Bulletin useful. Throughout the Bulletin you will find links to our more detailed newsletters and commentary, including our letters to the CSA on various regulatory proposals. Certain national instruments and companion policies are referred to using shortened versions of their full name. For example, National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations and its companion policy are referred to as NI 31-103 and 31-103CP, respectively.

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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.