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andreypopov/123RF

An Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) hearing panel approved a settlement with National Bank Financial Inc. on Friday that will see the investment dealer pay a $700,000 penalty to resolve allegations that some clients did not receive ETF disclosure documents on time.

According to the settlement agreement, the delivery failures were caused by “inadequacies” in NBF’s compliance system.

However, the settlement cites a variety of mitigating factors:

  • there were no client losses as a result of the delivery problems;
  • there was no dishonest conduct involved;
  • NBF co-operated with the OSC; and,
  • the firm delivered the disclosure to clients after discovering the failure.

NBF has also implemented controls to prevent a similar issue from occurring in the future, the settlement notes.

As part of the settlement, NBF has to carry out final testing on its new controls and report to the OSC on the adequacy of those controls (in addition to the monetary payments).

The firm will also pay $35,000 in costs.