The B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) has further extended an exemption from dealer registration requirements for trades in mortgage investment entities (MIEs) to the end of next year.
The BCSC has issued a notice that pushes back the expiry of an exemption from the requirement that dealers in MIEs must register with the regulator until Dec. 31, 2016. The exemption was set to expire in mid-2015.
Back in 2013, the BCSC proposed to do away with the exemption after a compliance review in the exempt market found that most dealers in this sector of the market were not fulfilling their disclosure obligations, particularly those trading in mortgage products.
However, since then, the commission decided to maintain the exemption, and it has extended that decision a couple of times; noting again in its most recent order that, “mortgage investment entities have represented that many of the registration requirements … are inappropriate for their business”, and that it “proposes to evaluate the impact of the dealer registration requirements on mortgage investment entities.”
The exemption applies to dealers that aren’t otherwise registered under securities rules, and requires that buyers sign risk acknowledgements for trades in prospectus-exempt mortgage products.