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Publication
Merger law reform in Australia: What next after the Exposure Draft?
As expected, the Australian Commonwealth Treasury released an exposure draft for the proposed new Australian merger regime on 24 July 2024.
Canada | Publication | September 28, 2022
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) now expect each unregistered crypto-asset trading platform (CTP) that deals in crypto-assets constituting securities or in contracts involving crypto-assets, and that has applied to become a registered dealer, to provide a pre-registration undertaking to its principal regulator to continue operations while its application is reviewed.
Through the pre-registration undertakings, CTPs seeking to become registered dealers will be required to adhere to terms and conditions that are consistent with the requirements currently applicable to registered platforms.
This is the most recent development in ongoing efforts by the CSA and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) to develop a regulatory framework for CTPs that seeks to balance flexibility, innovation, and investor protection.
In March 2019, the CSA and IIROC published Consultation Paper 21-402 – Proposed Framework for Crypto-Asset Trading Platforms (CP 21-402) that, as the name suggests, proposed a regulatory framework for CTPs and invited comments from industry participants. In March 2021, following the CP 21-402 consultation period, the CSA and IIROC published Staff Notice 21-329 – Guidance for Crypto-Asset Trading Platforms: Compliance with Regulatory Requirements (SN 21-329).
SN 21-329 set out the steps CTPs must take to comply with applicable securities legislation and provided guidance on how the existing regulatory framework may be tailored through terms and conditions on the registration of CTPs. This approach was intended to ensure CTPs operate with appropriate regulatory oversight where there might otherwise be gaps.
Pre-registration undertakings are effectively an extension of the tactic of regulating through terms and conditions (as discussed in SN 21-329). Whereas registered CTPs have always had terms and conditions imposed on them in their registrations, unregistered CTPs will now be required to comply with similar terms and conditions through their undertakings. Pre-registration undertakings published to date appear to closely mirror the terms and conditions imposed on registered CTPs, as summarized below:
Pre-Registration Terms and Conditions
Commit to:
Derivatives Data Trade Reporting Terms and Conditions
Deliver to the applicable regulatory authorities, as applicable:
Marketplace Terms and Conditions
In respect of marketplaces, maintain:
Pre-registration undertakings may be a practical way to help protect investors and level the regulatory playing field for registered and unregistered CTPs, without interrupting the operations of CTPs with pending dealer registration applications.
CTPs seeking to become a registered dealer should be aware of the nature of the expected undertakings, and should ensure they are able to fulfill such undertakings to mitigate the risk of enforcement or other regulatory proceedings being taken against them.
The full text of the CSA news update is available here. The full text of CP 21-402, including the comment letters received, is available here. The full text of SN 21-329 is available here.
The authors wish to thank Johanna Vanneste, articling student, for her help in preparing this legal update.
Publication
As expected, the Australian Commonwealth Treasury released an exposure draft for the proposed new Australian merger regime on 24 July 2024.
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