OSC continues to temporarily waive late fees for market participants due to COVID-19

TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) continues to temporarily waive late fees for market participants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The extensions build on the temporary relief the OSC announced in April of this year.

Late fees will be waived for investment funds, registrants, and firms that rely on certain registration exemptions in Ontario, that accumulate between June 2, 2020 and September 30, 2020. For issuers and regulated entities, including marketplaces, clearing agencies and trade repositories, late fees that accumulate between June 2, 2020 and August 31, 2020 will be waived.

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has granted relief to extend certain payment, filing and document delivery dates to a variety of market participants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For those that qualify for the CSA relief, no late fee would accrue if their filing is made by the new extended date.

Some participants are not eligible or may choose not to take advantage of the extended filing periods. For this reason, the OSC has provided, and continues to provide late fee relief by way of a local blanket order, in recognition that market participants may face some challenges in making fee payments or filings on time during this period. The new end dates for market participants coincide with the end of the relief periods that have otherwise been granted for making specified filings.
      
Market participants must pay fees in accordance with OSC Rule 13-502 Fees and OSC Rule 13-503 (Commodity Futures Act) Fees. This additional temporary relief will prevent the accumulation of certain late fees charged under these OSC rules.

The OSC blanket orders will come into effect on June 2, 2020 and expire September 30, 2020. The orders can be found on the OSC website.

The OSC continues to monitor the situation and will reassess if further late fee relief is needed.

The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair and efficient capital markets and confidence in the capital markets, and to contribute to the stability of the financial system and the reduction of systemic risk.  Investors are urged to check the registration of any persons or company offering an investment opportunity and to review the OSC investor materials available at http://www.osc.gov.on.ca.

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