Morningstar Canada and the Canadian Investment Funds Standards Committee (CIFSC) announced today that Morningstar Canada has rejoined the CIFSC, effective immediately, setting the stage for re-establishing a single set of basic industry-wide categories for Canadian investment funds later this year.

Morningstar’s return to the committee comes just over 12 months after it withdrew from the committee in February 2006. “We are delighted to welcome Morningstar back,” said Chris Adair, chair of the CIFSC. “With this announcement, our mutual goal of re-establishing a single set of categories for the industry is at hand,” said Adair, who is also general manager of Fundata Canada Inc.

Morningstar’s return to the CIFSC follows extensive discussions held between the two groups that focused on combining the best features of the two existing category systems into a single new set of categories. The new categories will be released later this year after a comment period that will enable the fund industry and other interested parties, including the public at large, to express their views.

In addition to the development of a new category schema, the two groups addressed logistical, procedural and governance issues including the adoption of non-voting membership status for industry trade groups and other future advisory members of the committee.

“Our mutual goal is to assist Canadian investors in their investment decisions,” said Morningstar Canada President and CEO Scott Mackenzie. “Canadian investors will once again benefit from having a single set of basic categories with which to evaluate mutual funds.”

Mackenzie added that the agreement to rejoin CIFSC addresses Morningstar Canada’s concerns regarding the development and monitoring of standard fund categories, as well as governance issues.

CIFSC’s current membership includes representatives from the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, Cannex Financial Exchanges, FP Datagroup, Fundata Canada, FundSERV, The Globe and Mail, The Investment Funds Institute of Canada, Lipper, Morningstar Canada and individual consultants.