When the Canadian Securities Administrators issued a staff notice during the summer that all registrants regulated directly by Canadian securities regulatory authorities would be required to prepare financial statements using International Financial Accounting Standards beginning on January 1, 2011, it literally set off a scramble.
Registrants such as investment counsel and portfolio managers, limited market dealers, exchange-contracts dealers, restricted dealers (and in Quebec, mutual fund dealers), who are not members of a self-regulatory organization (SRO) like the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada, suddenly were faced with a significant undertaking that could materially affect their reported financial position and results of operations.