IDA pushes CSA to drop suitability requirements

Joe Oliver, president and CEO of the IDA, told attendees at the IDA’s annual conference in Toronto this morning that the IDA met with the Canadian Securities Administrators yesterday to push the idea. An official from NASD Regulation Inc. in the U.S. accompanied the IDA to meet with the CSA and detail the U.S. experience with a similar rule. Oliver says that the NASDR has not found the sort of problems that would worry regulators here and he is optimistic that the change can go forward in Canada soon.

If it is enacted full-service dealers will be on a level playing field with discounters. Relief from suitability requirements was recently granted to discounters, enabling them to forgo suitability procedures on trades where no advice is provided.