OSC temporarily waives all late fees for market participants

TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is providing temporary relief to market participants by waiving all late fees that accumulate between April 17, 2020 and June 1, 2020. This is estimated to result in over $300,000 of relief to issuers, registrants and insiders during the relief period. 

“The current pandemic has made it difficult for businesses, particularly smaller firms that manage Ontarians’ investments, to make filings and payments on time,” said Grant Vingoe, Acting Chair and CEO of the OSC. “To alleviate some of these pressures, we are not collecting late fees at this time.”

Recently, blanket exemptive relief was granted by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) to extend filing dates to a variety of market participants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For those that qualify for this relief, no late fee would accrue if the filing was made by the new extended date.

Some participants are not eligible or have chosen not to take advantage of the extended filing period. For this reason, the OSC is providing late fee relief by way of a local blanket order, in recognition that all market participants may face some challenges in making fee payments on time during this period. Entities subject to fees under Part 4 of OSC Rule 13-502 Fees are not included in the relief as they will not accumulate late fees during this relief period.
                                            
Market participants must continue to 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 late fees charged under these OSC rules.

The OSC blanket orders will come into effect on April 17, 2020 and expire on June 1, 2020. Any additional late fee relief needed for the pandemic period before April 17, 2020 will also be considered. Issuers and insiders should contact [email protected] and registrants should contact [email protected], if they would like to be considered for additional relief. 

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

The relief orders can be found on the OSC website.

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.

-30-