(December 4 – 12:00 ET) – Regulation Services at the Toronto Stock Exchange is introducing minimum standards for the supervision of trading in listed securities.

The TSE says its board approved the standards last week. The standards set lines of compliance responsibility and establish minimum standards for supervision.

TSE RS says through these standards, supervisors of trading operations will regularly report to their boards on potential compliance risks. They will also bring significant compliance risks to the attention of their boards immediately. TSE RS has also developed a series of manuals to assist securities dealers in setting up their supervision systems.

Tom Atkinson, vice president of TSE RS says, “thanks to the strong contribution of the securities dealers, we are now able to introduce what we believe are the clearest set of trading supervision standards anywhere in North America.”

According to Atkinson, “dealers must develop and implement supervision and compliance procedures that exceed the elements identified in this policy where the circumstances warrant.”

These rules come in the wake of the RT Capital high closing scandal, and a couple of other trading scandals that have plagued the securities business this year.

“Any effective supervision standards depend on a strong overall commitment on the part of securities dealers, through its board of directors, to develop and implement a clearly defined set of policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to prevent and detect violations of TSE RS Requirements,” said Atkinson

These new standards will be published for 30-day comment period in the Ontario Securities Commission Bulletin this Friday.
-IE Staff