The Canadian Securities Administrators have issued a notice advising market participants that SEDAR filing charges will be going down for mutual fund issuers. As well, the mix of filing costs between SEDAR and insider filings through SEDI will be changed.

Prior to SEDI’s launch in May 2003, SEDAR’s annual filing service charges were increased for all reporting issuers (other than mutual funds) that file continuous disclosure documents through SEDAR (SEDI Issuers). However, the CSA says, “After more than a year of operations, it has become apparent that the assumption used to calculate the number of SEDI Issuers was incorrect. Accordingly, the portion of the SEDAR annual filing service charges allocated to SEDI needs to increase.”

The notice says that CDS obtained the regulators’ approval to allocate a larger portion of the SEDAR annual filing service charges to SEDI. This reallocation will apply to all SEDI Issuers and will result in a reduction in the SEDAR portion of the annual filing service charges and an increase in the SEDI portion of the annual filing service charges. These changes will be effective January 1, 2005 and will not change the total annual filing service charges for SEDI Issuers, it notes.

CDS also obtained approval to reduce the SEDAR annual filing service charges for mutual fund issuers. This change will also be effective January 1. A mutual fund issuer will be charged a SEDAR annual filing service charge of $495.00 for continuous disclosure at the time it files its annual financial statements. A January 10, 2005 SEDAR code update will reflect this reduced charge.