The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) is proposing the final set of reforms needed to implement its new, harmonized approach to continuing education (CE) for fund dealer and investment dealer reps — a project that’s key to beefing up the industry proficiency regime.
The industry self-regulatory organization completed phase one of the project last year — including changes to emphasize dealers’ responsibility for reps’ proficiency and supervising CE, to promote a principles-based approach to dealers approving CE courses, and to enhance consistency — with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) approving its first set of amendments in December.
However, it delayed implementation of those initial changes, which was originally expected at the start of 2026, to minimize implementation costs by having both phase one and phase two changes adopted at the same time.
Now, CIRO has issued that second set of proposals — reforms that are expected to have more significant systems and operational impacts — for a 90-day comment period.
In a notice detailing the proposals on Thursday, CIRO said the phase two proposals aim to strike “an appropriate balance between providing an effective, fair CE program for CIRO dealers and [reps], while keeping in mind our objectives of strengthening the proficiency regime and protecting investors without imposing unnecessary regulatory burden on dealers.”
Among other things, the phase two proposals aim to simplify and streamline the CE requirements, replace prescriptive requirements with principles-based rules, sync CE cycles and adopt more consistent requirements for all dealers and reps.
The comment period for the phase two proposals ends July 15. CIRO’s expected to finalize the requirements in the second half of 2027, and adopt the new harmonized CE program by Jan. 1, 2028.