Ontario regulators have given Dundee Securities Corp. permission to register two chief compliance officers, one for its institutional division, and one for retail.

The decision reported in Friday’s OSC Bulletin grants the firm an exemption from the requirement, adopted as part of registration reform, to register a single individual as chief compliance officer; allowing it to register two CCOs, one for each operating division, instead.

Dundee notes that the divisions already have “a well-established, separate and distinct supervisory structure”; and that each division has its own compliance department and has its own CCO, who fulfill different mandates. And, it says that it is difficult for one person to do both jobs, “Given the size, diversity and increasing complexity of the [firm’s] retail division and the institutional division…”

To meet the requirement, it would either have to restructure its supervisory and compliance structures, or split the two divisions into two separate registered firms.

“Either option would be burdensome,” Dundee notes, adding that, “There would be significant costs associated with the restructuring resulting from a loss of certain operational and technological efficiencies that currently exist as a result of operating as a single registrant.”

As a result, the Ontario Securities Commission has granted it permission to maintain the current structure.

IE