The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) Thursday published a notice setting out the results of their continuous disclosure reviews among issuers over the past fiscal year.
Staff Notice 51-339 Continuous Disclosure Review Program Activities for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, notes the CSA carried out a total of 1,336 continuous disclosure reviews, which is up 7% from the previous year.
The notice indicates that the increase is largely due to a greater emphasis on issue-oriented reviews, as certain CSA jurisdictions examined technical disclosure requirements (concerning mining and energy firms) and IFRS-specific topics on a larger sample of issuers.
Overall, 47% of the reviews required issuers to take action to improve their disclosure, it reports, which is down from 56% in fiscal 2012. This shift is largely due to the fact that the issue-oriented reviews on specific IFRS topics primarily aimed to monitor overall quality of disclosure, observe trends and conduct research, and did not result in comments to issuers.
During the year, the CSA carried out 368 full reviews in addition to 968 issue-oriented reviews, it reports. Full reviews cover many types of disclosure, including annual and interim financial reports and MD&A, technical disclosure, annual reports, information circulars, and other forms of disclosure.
The report provides guidance and examples of common deficiencies that it discovered in various areas during these full reviews, including deficiencies with financial statements, such as judgements, goodwill impairment, and going concern disclosure; MD&A deficiencies involving liquidity, discussion of operations, and related party transactions; and, various other deficiencies, stemming from technical reports, disclosure of internal controls over financial reporting for venture issuers, and executive compensation.