Three pension giants have jointly criticised a proposed new bill giving the regulator unprecedented powers.
Three of Canada’s largest pension fund managers are protesting powerful new legislation that would give regulators “unbelievable” powers.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) argued in a joint letter it is inappropriate and unnecessary to bring pension plans under the supervision of a proposed new national securities regulator in Canada.
The Capital Markets Stability Act would give the proposed new watchdog unprecedented powers to order companies or funds under its control to do anything it deems necessary to prevent systemic risks in the financial system.
“This act, as it reads right now, gives this regulator unbelievable powers that no other regulator in the world has,” HOOPP CEO Jim Keohane said to the Globe and Mail. “It can prohibit or restrict any business activities that we undertake. It could force us not to trade securities. The regulator can at its discretion order us to do anything it deems necessary to address systemic risk. It’s completely open-ended.”
As part of two new pieces of legislation published in September, the act would create a new federal-provincial securities regulator, and create a separate new national systemic risk oversight regime to be managed by the regulator. Public comments on both acts were due in December, but the legislation is still under review.
If a company’s activities could pose a systemic risk to the markets, the regulator would have powers to designate an organization as “systemically important.” The decision would be made based on a variety of criteria, including a company’s size, volume of trading it conducts, the extent of its “interdependencies” in the market and the complexity of its business.
The regulator would have the authority to require systemically important organizations to abandon proposed mergers, increase capital or financial resources, implement wind-up plans, terminate business activities or “to do anything else that is necessary to address the risk.”
Breaches of the act carry fines up to $25-million.
Keohane fears the regulator’s proposed powers are too broad.
“The way this reads right now, they could designate us as a capital market intermediary and tell us we have to buy assets off a bank,” he said. “This thing says they can tell us to do anything.”
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) argued in a joint letter it is inappropriate and unnecessary to bring pension plans under the supervision of a proposed new national securities regulator in Canada.
The Capital Markets Stability Act would give the proposed new watchdog unprecedented powers to order companies or funds under its control to do anything it deems necessary to prevent systemic risks in the financial system.
“This act, as it reads right now, gives this regulator unbelievable powers that no other regulator in the world has,” HOOPP CEO Jim Keohane said to the Globe and Mail. “It can prohibit or restrict any business activities that we undertake. It could force us not to trade securities. The regulator can at its discretion order us to do anything it deems necessary to address systemic risk. It’s completely open-ended.”
As part of two new pieces of legislation published in September, the act would create a new federal-provincial securities regulator, and create a separate new national systemic risk oversight regime to be managed by the regulator. Public comments on both acts were due in December, but the legislation is still under review.
If a company’s activities could pose a systemic risk to the markets, the regulator would have powers to designate an organization as “systemically important.” The decision would be made based on a variety of criteria, including a company’s size, volume of trading it conducts, the extent of its “interdependencies” in the market and the complexity of its business.
The regulator would have the authority to require systemically important organizations to abandon proposed mergers, increase capital or financial resources, implement wind-up plans, terminate business activities or “to do anything else that is necessary to address the risk.”
Breaches of the act carry fines up to $25-million.
Keohane fears the regulator’s proposed powers are too broad.
“The way this reads right now, they could designate us as a capital market intermediary and tell us we have to buy assets off a bank,” he said. “This thing says they can tell us to do anything.”
