FSRA extends timeline for approving title credentialing bodies through 2023

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) will take the rest of the year to approve credentialing bodies, extending the expected timeline by six months.

At the one-and-a-half-year mark since title protection of “financial advisor” and “financial planner” came into effect in the province, those who use the titles require “more time to find a path to comply” with the framework, FSRA said in a recent update.

“We will continue to focus our resources on approving credentialing bodies and assisting them with the implementation of the title protection framework, which will now extend to Dec. 31, 2023,” the regulator said.

FSRA’s focus on approvals and framework implementation had been slated to end on June 30.

That deadline was established before the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) said in March that it intends to be a credentialing body for the “financial advisor” title.

That announcement in turn was followed by industry groups calling on the province to reject the proposed fee rule for the framework, because it created a fee exemption for CIRO as a credentialing body. The groups also called for greater proficiency standards for the “financial advisor” title.

FSRA said in its update that it would release a supervision plan this summer setting out key areas of supervision for approved credentialing bodies to help ensure “higher industry standards” and “consistency” among credentialing bodies.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.