Continuing education is an important part of maintaining investor confidence in financial advice. In our submission on CIRO’s proposed CE rules, FAIR Canada supported the goal of harmonizing requirements across investment dealers and mutual fund dealers. However, we emphasized that harmonization should mean adopting the highest existing standard, not reducing standards for the sake of consistency.
FAIR Canada is concerned that CIRO’s proposal would move the much larger population of mutual fund dealer representatives to the less rigorous CE model for investment dealers. We urged CIRO to maintain mandatory accreditation requirements and recommended a centralized reporting system so CIRO can better track compliance with CE requirements. A modern CE framework should strengthen accreditation, recordkeeping, compliance monitoring, and regulatory oversight to better support professional competence and investor protection.