A Communiqué from The Manitoba Securities Commission – Cooperation, Education and Innovation

The Manitoba Securities Commission aims to keep
you in the know about how it works with the industry to improve our
province’s securities and real estate markets.

Click on any of the following highlights from the
past year for more information:

Cooperating With The Industry

Becoming a
registrant gets simpler
Continuous
disclosure obligations harmonized across the country
How many exemption
orders were issued in 2003/04?
What kinds of
scams were investigated?

Educating All Manitobans

Top four reasons
Manitobans want investor education
Honey, I shrunk
the money!
Brandon high
schooler tests her financial IQ
Education
continues in Real Estate division

Innovative Industry Solutions

Powerful tool
helps recoup investor losses
Continuous
Disclosure becomes a priority
Public gains easy
access to insider reporting information
Raise capital
without a prospectus while maintaining protection

Becoming a
registrant gets simpler

The Manitoba Securities Commission played a key role
in the introduction of the National Registration Database, a secure
Internet based system that permits firms and individuals to register
via a single electronic application. Created in response to the
industry’s needs, this initiative replaces the former paper-based
registration system and is widely supported.

In the past year, we processed 12,426 securities
renewals for individuals and firms, 2,383 commodities renewals for
individuals and firms and 5,500 other registrations including
terminations, transfers, opening and closing of locations and
reactivation of registrations.

Continuous disclosure
obligations harmonized across the country
The Manitoba Securities
Commission was involved in developing and implementing National
Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations. This rule, for
the first time, harmonized continuous disclosure obligations across
the country resulting in greater efficiency. We also helped develop
a number of other rules aimed at restoring investor confidence in
the securities markets.

How many exemption orders were
issued in 2003/04?

The Manitoba Securities Commission receives
applications for exemptions from regulatory requirements in
situations where granting an order is not contrary to the public
interest. The following chart gives total number of orders issued
under The Securities Act in the past year.

What kinds of scams were
investigated?

The Manitoba Securities Commission’s investigation
department looked into four different versions of a RRSP scam. Funds
held within a RRSP account were swapped for shares of a usually
worthless small business corporation. Most of the victims received
money back in the form of a loan and the rest of the investors were
enticed by the promises of high returns. The perpetrators worked
through trust companies, mutual fund dealers, and full service
brokers.

Our undercover operations shut scams down before
they get started. This saves costs associated with a full blown
investigation once the scam has become established, protects
investors before they lose money and keeps clients working with
legitimate financial advisers.

Powerful tool helps
recoup investor losses


The Manitoba Securities Commission can order
repayment to an investor for losses arising from illegal or improper
conduct relating to securities trading, up to $100,000 per claim.
This provides investors with an alternative to the civil court
system – the first of its kind in Canada – and is a powerful tool
for investor protection. In the past year, we received 30 claims
from investors totalling $749,760.

Continuous Disclosure becomes
a priority

The Manitoba Securities Commission started its own
continuous disclosure review program and is helping develop a
national program to ensure that all reporting issuers are subject to
ongoing review and the reviews are performed efficiently and
consistently. This new focus on continuous disclosure filings
reflects the fact that over 90 per cent of all trades take place in
the secondary market and the quality and timeliness of information
disclosed to capital market participants by reporting issuers is of
the utmost importance to the market. We will continue to review
prospectus offerings, but the primary focus is on the review of
continuous disclosure filings.

Public gains easy access to
insider reporting information

The Canadian Securities Administrators successfully
launched the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI),
which provides easy public access to insider reporting information
and allows us to more effectively monitor insider reporting
activity. We recently began reviewing insider reports and will
continue to do so in the coming year.

How to raise capital
without a prospectus while retaining
investor
protection

The Manitoba Securities Commission adopted the New
Exemption Rule, which allows businesses to raise capital without a
prospectus while maintaining investor protection. The rule, in place
in most Canadian jurisdictions, means businesses can access markets
across the country without having to decipher a different sets of
rules and is a positive step in coordinating the Canadian securities
regulatory system.

Some of the above highlights were taken
from the 2003-2004 annual report of the Manitoba Securities
Commission. Click here to
download the annual report in its entirety.