Canadian Regulator Expected to Bring Timing Charges

July 27, 2004, 1:00 a.m. EDT 1 Min Read

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, National Post reports. But the charges are likely to be focused on market-timing abuses, rather than illegal late trading, sources told the Post.

Although the pending action has put mutual fund companies on edge, analysts dont expect the accusations to result in the massive net redemptions that they have experienced in the U.S. As long as it appears that market timing was prevalent throughout the industry, the investigations dont move into late trading and the firms involved quickly settle, at least one analyst sees the incident being resolved quickly. "I dont think were going to get that spike in redemptions for the companies that are implicated the way we did in the United States," the analyst said.

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada, the nations equivalent of the Investment Company Institute, has been working with the Ontario Securities Commission, said John Murray, vice president of regulation and corporate affairs at the institute. He confirmed that the regulator is investigating fund companies and said that it will bring its charges forward by the end of August.

The Ontario Securities Commission began its investigation into 105 fund companies in November and has narrowed that to 15, according to the Post.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.