The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) will be introducing two new educational events for dealer firms: one to explain its expectations for client complaint handling and dispute resolution; and another focusing on fees.
The OSC announced on Wednesday that it will be hosting both online and in-person versions of these events as part of its registrant outreach program, which aims to help boost compliance by providing firms with practical insight into compliance-related issue as well as giving them the opportunity to interact directly with the regulator’s staff on issues that impact them.
In October, it will be holding sessions to educate firms about the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) and its complaint-handling process, amid the new requirement for all registered firms to join OBSI by Aug. 2. At these sessions, OBSI representatives will explain the organization and its process, among other things. The OSC will also discuss its expectations in terms of handling client complaints and making clients aware of the availability of OBSI for dispute resolution.
The other sessions, scheduled for November, will look at properly calculating participation fees in anticipation of the Dec. 1 fee-filing deadline. Again, the OSC will hold both a webinar and an in-person event for OSC staff to discuss key issues and common errors related to the calculation and filing of participation fees. There will also be discussion of the results of a review of participation fee calculations, and of proposed changes to OSC fee rule.