IIROC issues updated Strategic Plan

April 14, 2011 (Toronto, ON) – The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) has issued an updated Strategic Plan for the period through 2012.

The plan introduces some changes to its enabling strategies and the addition of new projects for the new fiscal year that began April 1st.

“Our revised Strategic Plan will guide us in providing efficient, cost-effective regulation while responding to important changes in the industry and markets we regulate,” said Susan Wolburgh Jenah, IIROC President and Chief Executive Officer.

Some of these projects are focused on investor protection. Others reflect a range of regulatory priorities, including the need to leverage technology and IIROC’s response to issues that emerged during last year’s Flash Crash.

Highlights of some of the new priorities and projects include:

• Investors are faced with an increasingly complex marketplace with a wide range of products, services and advisors to choose from. IIROC will implement, subject to Canadian Securities Administrators’ approval, its Client Relationship Model to improve transparency in the area of fees, advisor conflicts and account performance.
• IIROC will enhance its compliance and enforcement efforts with respect to suitability issues. These efforts will include a focus on issues relating to seniors, a growing demographic priority as more Canadians either approach or reach retirement age.
• IIROC is focusing more of its regulatory resources on the large and growing Canadian fixed-income market. IIROC will implement, subject to CSA approval, the fair pricing rule for fixed-income and other over-the-counter securities to ensure investors can be confident the price they pay or receive in transactions is a fair one.
• Emerging challenges for regulation include faster trading, complex strategies and technologies, as well as higher volumes of messages and order traffic. IIROC will also implement, subject to CSA approval, recommendations adopted in the aftermath of last year’s May 6 Flash Crash, as part of our efforts to address the stability and reliability of markets.
• Leveraging technology is essential to cost-effective regulation and allows us to keep up with fast-paced changes and innovation in the marketplace. IIROC is completing the implementation of its Surveillance Technology Enhancement Program, which will allow it to handle higher trading speeds and volumes, and perform cross-market monitoring and analysis of all equity markets in Canada. Investments in strategic information technology are also essential to more effective compliance and enforcement.

IIROC set out its Strategic Plan in 2008 with a five-year horizon. It is updated annually to remove completed projects and add new initiatives that reflect changes in the investment industry and regulatory environment.

Consistent with IIROC’s commitment to transparency and accountability, the plan is posted on IIROC’s website. An annual Scorecard reporting our progress on projects against the objectives of the plan is included in IIROC’s Annual Report.

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IIROC is the national self-regulatory organization which oversees all investment dealers and trading activity on debt and equity marketplaces in Canada. Created in 2008 through the consolidation of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada and Market Regulation Services Inc., IIROC sets high quality regulatory and investment industry standards, protects investors and strengthens market integrity while maintaining efficient and competitive capital markets. IIROC carries out its regulatory responsibilities through setting and enforcing rules regarding the proficiency, business and financial conduct of dealer firms and their registered employees and through setting and enforcing market integrity rules regarding trading activity on Canadian equity marketplaces.

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