The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) is proposing further amendments to Proposed Rule 2022–001 – Assessments and Fees (Fee Rule) in order to reduce variable annual fees payable by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) (currently referred to as the New Self-Regulatory Organization of Canada) once it becomes a credentialing body under FSRA's title protection framework. The exemption would apply to any self-regulatory organization (SRO) that has received a recognition order from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).
As the OSC already provides oversight of CIRO's activities, FSRA, the OSC and CIRO wish to ensure that CIRO's future status as a credentialing body does not result in regulatory duplication. FSRA believes that an entity's fair share of costs does not include costs for oversight already being provided by another regulator. A new methodology for the variable assessment that an SRO credentialing body would pay would be added to the Fee Rule, but an SRO credentialing body would still be required to pay the flat rate element of the annual assessment, and its share of the proposed start-up cost fee.
The formula to calculate the variable assessment element for credentialing bodies, other than an SRO, will be modified so that an SRO credentialing body's credential holders are not counted when determining the total number of approved credentials issued to individuals by all approved credentialing bodies.
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