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MFDA Obmudservice Information Sharing
Letter Summary:
The MFDA is proposing an amendment to its by-law to expand the type of information it would be permitted to receive from the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (“OBSI”). Currently, OBSI’s own terms of reference is broader with respect to the type of information that can be provided to the regulators, and the amendments would remove the potential for inconsistency between those provisions. The broader scope would allow OBSI to provide the MFDA with information in connection with an investigation or the review of a complaint, including information about anticipated refusals of OBSI recommendations. The scope of information that could be provided would thus be the same as can be provided to other regulators, including the OSC.
Overview of the Council’s Comments:
The CAC was encouraged by efforts from regulators to harmonize rules, to the extent possible, across distribution platforms and believe it is important for OBSI to be permitted to share relevant information with respect to registrants that may have significant regulatory implications with all applicable supervisory bodies. Given the mutual objective of fostering confidence in the Canadian capital markets, the information shared by OBSI may not only help regulatory investigations, but assist registrants and shape, or even avoid, future regulation. In support of this initiative, the CAC believes that to the extent both OBSI and the MFDA are contemporaneously dealing with client complaints or potential systemic compliance issues, if the regulators work with the same data set, it may be possible to cut down the frequency and inconsistency of information requests made to a registrant with respect to the same incident(s).