News Release

Toronto – Investors and investment dealers across Canada can now easily retrieve non-issuer cease trade orders (CTOs) issued by Canada’s participating securities commissions as a result of new enhancements to the national CTO database. Before today, the database only contained CTOs against issuers. The CTO database is the only centralized source of CTOs in Canada. The database is accessible free-of-charge at www.rs.ca. An issuer is an entity that issues securities. A non-issuer is an individual or entity that can trade securities. (See “What are CTOs” below)

The database is intended to help protect investors and dealers from unintentional violations of CTOs. The enhanced CTO database now includes CTOs issued against both issuers and non-issuers by the securities regulatory authorities in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Québec along with CTOs issued against non-issuers since January 1, 1999 by the securities regulatory authorities in New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Nova Scotia.

“Adding cease trade orders against individuals and management to this national database means investors and investment dealers can go to one place, for free, to access this important information. It helps protect the public by letting them check to make sure the people who are providing them with financial advice or who are running companies they're investing in haven't been removed from the market. This database is a vital resource for dealers to ensure they are complying with orders by securities regulators across the country," said Peter Grant, Deputy Director and Chief Information Officer at the British Columbia Securities Commission. The BCSC is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities within British Columbia.

”The national CTO database was created in early 2003 to make it easier for investment dealers to comply with issuer CTOs and to solve the problem of timely CTO notification,” said Gerry Halischuk, Vice President Market Regulation – Western Region at Market Regulation Services Inc. (RS), which manages the database. “Subscribers to the database receive an electronic feed of CTOs as they are issued by participating securities commissions, enabling better compliance. This joint initiative among RS, the BC Securities Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has become an indispensable tool for compliance by investment dealers. These recent enhancements were fully funded by the CSA, which also funds the costs of maintaining the database by RS.”

Prior to the establishment of the CTO database, investors and investment dealers were expected to search the databases of each securities commission, review commission bulletins and rely on news release information to ensure they were not violating CTOs. With an average of 100 new issuer CTOs every month, daily searches by investment dealers could not be completed in a timely manner, or the information was incomplete, resulting in unintentional non-compliance. Investment dealers were in need of timely, easily accessible, consistent and centralized information about CTOs issued across different jurisdictions.
The CTO database contains more than 6,000 active issuer CTOs as well as some 3,500 historical CTOs dating back as far as 1971.  In addition, it will now contain approximately 300 active non-issuer CTOs dating back to January 1, 1999 and will be updated with additional, older outstanding orders in the future.

What are CTOs?
CTOs are only issued by securities commissions or the courts.  Issuer CTOs are issued against a company for failing to meet disclosure requirements, such as filing a quarterly or annual financial statement, or as a result of an enforcement action that involves an investigation of wrongdoing.  The issuer CTO prohibits trading in that company's securities. Residents in the province or territory where the CTO was issued are unable to trade in the securities of that company until the CTO is revoked. 

A non-issuer CTO restricts the ability of individuals or entities from trading. For example, a company's senior management and insiders may be restricted from trading in a given security.

About Market Regulation Services Inc. (RS)
RS is the independent regulation services provider for Canadian equity marketplaces, including the TSX, TSX Venture Exchange, Canadian Trading and Quotation System, Bloomberg Tradebook Canada Company and Liquidnet Canada Inc.  RS is recognized by the securities commissions of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and the “Autorité des marchés financiers” in Québec to regulate the trading of securities on these marketplaces by participant firms and their trading and sales staff. RS helps protect investors and ensure market integrity by ensuring all equities transactions are executed properly, fairly and in compliance with trading rules.

Media contacts:

Doug Maybee
Director of Communications & Public Affairs
Market Regulation Services Inc. (RS)
T: 416-646-7253
doug.maybee@rs.ca
www.rs.ca [link no longer operational]

Andrew Poon
Media & Government Relations
British Columbia Securities Commission
T: 604-899-6880
1-800-373-6393 (B.C. & Alberta only)
apoon@bcsc.bc.ca
www.bcsc.bc.ca