Comments Received

We received six comment letters in response to IIROC Notices 16-0233 and16-0234. Appendix C provides a summary of the public comments received and our responses. 

Description of Non-Material Changes to 2016 Proposed Amendments

The Amendments, as approved, vary slightly from the 2016 Proposed Amendments.  Non-material changes were made to subsection 3300.3(b) and 3300.11(c)(xi)(C) to correct typographical errors in the 2016 Proposed Amendments. We also modified the required time to retain records of best execution policies and procedures reviews, as well as any material decisions made and changes to them, from five to seven years in order to be consistent with other record retention requirements in the Dealer Member Rules. These changes are highlighted in the comment summary found at Appendix C.

Description of Non-Material Changes to 2016 Guidance

We made the following non-material changes to the 2016 Proposed Guidance:

• reflected the requirement to retain records of best execution policies and procedures reviews, as well as any material decisions made and changes to them, for seven years
• added “accessing the marketplace directly” as an additional option that a Dealer Member may consider if a particular unprotected marketplace has demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of liquidity for securities for which the Dealer Member accepts orders
• modified the wording in question 20 to clarify that the expectation for a Dealer Member to monitor for trading opportunities on marketplaces that operate outside the core trading hours and migrate client orders when they can execute with orders displayed on marketplaces that are still open only arises if the Dealer Member has adopted a policy to migrate client orders
• added language in question 22 to clarify that the question is with respect to whether an Executing Dealer Member is expected to provide input into order routing management for client orders in order to comply with its best execution obligation.

Final guidance respecting best execution is being published concurrently with this Notice and can be found at IIROC Notice 17-0138 – Guidance Respecting Best Execution.

Attachments

Appendix A – Text of DMR Amendments
Appendix B – Text of UMIR Amendments
Appendix C – Summary of comments received and IIROC’s responses

Implementation

The Amendments come into force on January 2, 2018, being 180 days after the publication of this Notice.

As mentioned in IIROC Notice 15-0277, IIROC will withdraw its proposal regarding the dark rules anti-avoidance provision that was published in IIROC Notice 15-0023 – Re-publication of Proposed Dark Rules Anti-Avoidance Provision upon implementation of the Amendments.