FAIR Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Tania Willumsen to the FAIR Canada Board of Directors.
Ms. Willumsen has over forty years of experience as a senior executive in the areas of institutional investment management and pensions. A past Director with the Institute of Corporate Directors, she has been a frequent speaker on pension [...]

The Canadian Securities Administrators (the CSA) released their 2009 Enforcement Report yesterday. The report describes enforcement activities across the CSA, including statistical data and case summaries.

On January 22, 2010, the Canadian Securities Transition Office (the CSTO) hosted its first investor roundtable. The roundtable was attended by 15 investor representatives and moderated by FAIR Canada Executive Director Ermanno Pascutto. The focus of the discussion was on the recommendation in the Expert Panel Report (also known as the “Hockin” Report) to create [...]

The recent financial crisis, record-low interest rates, the aging population, and the plight of bankrupt or under-funded pension plans have made the health of Canada’s pension/retirement system one of the critical issues of our time.  Are Canadians saving enough for their retirement?  Are they investing those savings wisely?  How does Canada compare to other countries [...]

Associate Director Ilana Singer will sit on FADOQ’s provincial advisory committee, in connection with its anti-abuse and fraud initiative. The project, which is being supported by a “New Horizons” grant from the federal government, will aim to develop a multidisciplinary, bilingual toolkit for the prevention of abuse and fraud targeted to the elderly in Quebec.

FAIR Canada recently provided comments in response to IIROC’s request for comments on the proposed know your client (KYC) and suitability guidance notice (09-0293) issued on October 2, 2009.

FAIR Canada supports IIROC’s initiative to provide more guidance on the KYC and suitability obligations of investment dealers. The suitability of investments is traditionally the largest source of client complaints filed with dealers, and suitability obligations are more important than ever with the increasing number and complexity of investment products available. We believe that many dealers would welcome more detailed guidance on how the regulators will administer and interpret the rules. However, the need for guidance applies to investors as well as dealers. Most retail clients do not understand the suitability obligation, or their rights and responsibilities under it.

The lead story for this month’s FAIR Canada newsletter is our submission to the CSA on the mutual fund point of sale initiative. However, the announcement of the introduction of a new form of gambling for retail investors prompted us to lead with a comment on CFDs.

FAIR Canada was invited to participate in the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) annual conference from October 7 to 9 in Basel, Switzerland. The conference was organized by IOSCO’s Technical Committee (TC). The TC is composed of the eighteen largest capital markets worldwide, including the US SEC and the UK FSA.

There have been a number of developments since the report on May 14, 2009 entitled “Heads You Lose, Tails You Lose: The Strange Case of Leveraged ETFs”. Since then there have been a number of encouraging developments…However, much remains to be done.