The Bourse de Montréal Inc. (MX) is boosting its regulatory fees, starting this spring.
The exchange announced that it will implement a new slate of fees starting April 1 to ensure that it’s able to meet its regulatory mandate.
“Over the last 10 years, the division’s regulatory responsibilities have grown significantly, driven by the proliferation of new products and extended trading hours, the increase in the number of messages, orders and trading volumes, the adoption of new rules, and other regulatory mandates and technological developments,” it said in a notice.
Yet, despite the expanding regulatory obligations, the exchange’s regulatory division hasn’t raised participants’ core regulatory fees since 2004 or imposed other significant fee hikes, and actually introduced fee caps in 2016.
“The division has been successful in deferring fee increases by strategically reducing reserves and carefully managing expenses, but these measures are no longer sufficient to sustainably support the division’s mission,” it said. “Leveraging these funds, while useful in the short term, was not sustainable in the long term.”
As a result, the regulatory division’s special committee has approved a set of fee hikes “to address the budget deficit and provide sustainable funding.”
The new fees are “subject to further review and may necessitate another increase in 2024,” it said.