The Boards of Directors of the Investment Industry Association of Canada (IIAC), the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC), and the Federation of Mutual Fund Dealers (FMFD) established the Investment Industry SRO Forum in January of this year to consider the potential outcomes of the CSA SRO Framework Consultation. The Associations felt it was important for the investment industry to collaborate to provide regulators with a broad industry view on how to improve self-regulation through consolidation. Our overarching objective is to improve the investor experience and strengthen investor protection.

Forum members agreed that self-regulation is critical to the Canadian capital markets and that investors are best served by one national SRO that has an operating model flexible enough to accommodate all categories of dealer and advisor registrants.

The Forum made its submission to the CSA today. Its recommendations are high-level, strategic, and practical; they focus on governance, policy, and operating efficiencies. The Forum also asserted that the SRO consolidation process needs to proceed as quickly as possible and that the considerable assets of both the current SROs should be leveraged to the fullest extent.

Forum members also issued a joint news release today. A joint (IIAC, IFIC, FMFD) webinar will be held on April 13. More information to come.