The Canadian Securities
Administrators today announced the adoption of National Instrument 23-103 Electronic
Trading. The Instrument and its Companion
Policy are intended to address the risks of electronic
trading, specifically with respect to credit risk, market
integrity risk, technology or systems risk and regulatory
arbitrage risk.
As
we discussed in a post last year, the
CSA initially proposed the Instrument in April 2011, and the
final version addresses the public comments received. Ultimately,
the Instrument sets out requirements with respect to controls,
policies and procedures that are applicable to marketplace
participants, marketplaces and the use of automated order systems.
Notably, however, while the 2011 proposal included requirements
regarding the provision of direct electronic access, the final
version of the Instrument excludes such requirements. According to
the CSA notice, in considering those particular provisions, it was
determined that
