Notice of Commission Approval – Amendments to Form 1 and Corollary Amendments to the IIROC Rules – Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC)

 
The Ontario Securities Commission has approved IIROC’s proposed amendments to Form 1 and corollary amendments to the IIROC Rules (collectively, the Amendments).

In February 2018, new defined terms were introduced to replace the term “recognized exchange”. The new terms, however, inadvertently created inconsistencies with the IIROC Rules regarding which securities listings are eligible for margin or preferred margin treatment. To address this issue, the Amendments:

• eliminate the use of the terms “applicable exchange” and “applicable association”; and
• revise the definitions of the terms “acceptable exchange” and “regulated entity”.

The Amendments also seek to improve the overall consistency of the IIROC requirements by providing greater clarity and conciseness of other defined terms and incorporating plain language writing conventions within Form 1.

IIROC originally published the Amendments for comment on June 10, 2021. No comment letters were received. IIROC has made non-material changes to the Amendments in response to comments received from staff of the Canadian Securities Administrators. The IIROC Notice of Approval/Implementation, including text of the Amendments, can be found at www.osc.ca.

The Amendments will be effective on December 31, 2021 when the IIROC Rules come into force.

In addition, the British Columbia Securities Commission; the Alberta Securities Commission; the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan; the Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick; the Manitoba Securities Commission; the Nova Scotia Securities Commission; the Prince Edward Island Office of the Superintendent of Securities Office; Office of the Superintendent of Securities, Northwest Territories; Office of the Superintendent of Securities, Nunavut; and Office of the Yukon Superintendent of Securities have either not objected to or have approved the Amendments.