The Ontario Securities Commission is planning to bring market-timing charges against a number of mutual fund companies in Canada within the next few weeks, it was reported last week. But the charges are likely to be focused on market-timing abuses, rather than illegal late trading.
Although the pending action has put Canadian mutual fund companies on edge, analysts don't expect the accusations to result in the massive net redemptions that fund companies have experienced in the U.S. As long as it appears that market timing was prevalent throughout the industry, the investigations don't move into late trading and the firms involved settle quickly, analysts expect the incident to be resolved without serious repercussions.
The Ontario Securities Commission began investigating more than 100 fund companies in November and has since whittled that number down to 15.
