(June 27 – 15:25 ET) – The Ontario Securities Commission is announcing that, effective July 1, it will begin its Continuous Disclosure Review Program, making every Ontario-based firm subject to a full disclosure review every four years.
Firms will be selected for review based on the perceived risk that disclosure issues may exist. Once selected, companies will be subject to either a full, issue-oriented review or a limited review, depending on selective review criteria. The levels of continuous disclosure review are somewhat similar to those used in prospectus reviews.
The Canadian Securities Administrators is working on a Mutual Reliance Review System for continuous disclosure review.
“The quality and timeliness of information disclosed to the capital markets by companies has always been a focus of the OSC. However, in order to better focus attention on this area, last year the OSC created a Continuous Disclosure Team within its Corporate Finance Branch solely dedicated to CD issues. The team now has 16 members, and will grow to 23 by March 2001,” says Kathryn Soden, director of the Corporate Finance Branch.
-IE Staff