Earlier today, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA)
published proposed regulatory amendments that would prohibit the
payment of commissions to dealers on most sales of mutual funds
(the Proposed Amendments). Shortly after
publication, the Government of Ontario announced that it does
not agree with the Proposed Amendments as drafted and that it will
work with other jurisdictions and stakeholders to explore potential
alternatives.
The Proposed Amendments are the product of numerous rounds of
public consultations and commissioned academic research studies
over the course of the last decade. While securities regulators
finally reached consensus in July 2018, the
proposed restrictions on embedded commissions remain controversial,
and many Canadian fund managers and dealers are expected to object
to the Proposed Amendments during the 90-day public comment period.
In Ontario, the Minister of Finance has discretion to approve or
reject any rule proposed by the
