The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) plans to make it easier for Canadians to trade in foreign securities.
Amendments published Thursday introduce a new prospectus exemption that aims to allow Canadian investors to resell the securities of foreign issuers on foreign markets, or to foreign investors (as long as the securities don’t involve a company that’s a reporting issuer in Canada).
The new exemption is designed to provide more clarity to investors when they are trading in foreign stocks that don’t have any connection to Canada, and to reduce barriers to foreign firms distributing securities to Canadian investors under the existing regime.
“We recognize that Canadian investors are increasingly interested in participating in the global capital markets. The changes made to our regulatory regime are intended to provide Canadian investors with greater certainty regarding their ability to resell their securities of foreign issuers,” says Louis Morisset, chairman of the CSA and president and CEO of the Autorité des marchés financiers, in a statement.
Provided all necessary regulatory and ministerial approvals are obtained, the rule changes will come into effect on June 12.
The CSA will also continue to review the resale regime for securities acquired in the exempt market generally “to determine whether the existing regime continues to be relevant in today’s markets and to assess the impact of alternative regulatory approaches,” the regulator says in its notice.