OSC Proposes Mandatory Electronic Filing Of Documents

The Ontario Securities Commission today released a proposed rule that would mandate the filing of certain required documents with the Commission in electronic format. The rule would apply to, among other things certain applications made to the OSC, the calculation of excess working capital form, reports of exempt distribution (45-106F1 and 45-501F1) and, offering memoranda and amendments and notices and documents sent to the OSC under the secondary market civil liability provisions of the Securities Act. The requirement to file electronically would not, however, apply to documents already filed through SEDAR, SEDI or NRD.

While many of the applicable documents would continue to be filed in unstructured format once the new rule took effect, the OSC would eventually migrate to process online forms and structured data.