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August 2025 Advocacy Newsletter
Summary:
As September looms, our advocacy program is picking up steam, booking meetings and building plans for both proactive engagement with government and regulators, and responding to a packed calendar of regulatory consultations (see more below).
We recently submitted CFA Societies Canada’s pre-budget consultation comments to the Government of Canada, and plan on meeting with key officials in the coming weeks to highlight our key points. In our submission, we highlighted the importance of the vitality of the Canadian asset management ecosystem to the national economic interests of Canada. We pointed to the pressures of consolidation in the sector, fierce foreign competition, and the barriers to entrepreneurship and scaling as matters worth policy attention, in support of a healthy and diversified domestic ecosystem. It’s our hope that given the Government’s capital-intensive policy agenda, that they can recognize the natural partnership that can exist with a robust and vital public *and* private-sector asset management ecosystem in Canada, which deserves overdue policy attention after what we feel has been a long period of federal government indifference to the sector. We highlighted foreign jurisdictions such as Ireland, Singapore, the UAE, and Switzerland as places that have recently embraced the asset management sector through policy action, and reaped economic rewards in business, economic, and employment growth.
We also highlighted what we see as an opportunity for the federal government to re-engage and revitalize its leadership and coordinative roles in areas of financial policy with the financial consumer experience in mind, and to make new gains in regulatory cooperation and harmonization, reinforce competition domestically, and to take a more aggressive stance on Canada’s competition as a jurisdiction for growth within the global financial services industry. We highlighted recent global comparative reports and recommendations, and some perceived opportunities for sector reforms.
Overall, we are optimistic from recent meetings that this is an opportunity to forge a new and productive relationship between the investment profession and our sector and the federal government, contributing to the growth and robustness of the Canadian economy.
Otherwise, we’re sharpening our pencils on the many comment letters to be written, awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in Lundin v. Markowich, and looking to continue to engage on proficiency evolution in the Canadian industry, noting particularly Fitch Learning’s recent purchase of the legacy Canadian Securities Institute business from Moody’s.
We will again highlight that effective January 1, 2026, CIRO’s new proficiency model takes effect, with significant new recognition for CFA Program in the form of exam waivers. CFA charterholders or recent passers of the Level 1 exam will be able to avail themselves of a waiver for the introductory CSIE exam, and either of the qualifying ‘segment’ exams – Retail or Institutional. This process runs through the CIRO dealer member firm at the time of registration, so there’s no action to take on an individual level to qualify. See CIRO’s proficiency website for more details on the new model, and expect to see more awareness-building soon on what this means for CFA charterholders and current and potential CFA candidates from our channels.
Michael Thom, CFA
Managing Director
CFA Societies Canada