Directors, executives, ultimate designated persons (UDPs), chief compliance officers (CCOs) and chief financial officers (CFOs) and their roles are under the microscope at the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), as the regulator continues the process of developing and publishing competency profiles for all IIROC approval categories.

IIROC published competency profiles for those roles August 31 and has asked interested stakeholders to comment and provide feedback on them by Dec. 29, 2021.

“A competency profile is generally a set of knowledge, behaviours and skills that an individual must have to perform effectively in their role,” IIROC writes in its call for comments.

“The purpose of competency profiles is to provide guidance to dealer members and potential course providers, and also to be used by IIROC for benchmarking purposes,” they add. “In determining the scope of knowledge and related behaviours and skills, we had to keep in mind that our competency profiles need to be presented in a measurable manner. While keeping in mind the importance of measurability and providing specifics, we were careful not to inadvertently create new requirements. Our intention is to reflect the current regulatory framework, requirements and guidance.” 

When the comment period closes in December, IIROC says it will review all comments and update the competency profiles as appropriate. Following that, the regulator expects to publish additional consultation papers on other IIROC approval categories, including those for supervisors, traders, portfolio managers and associate portfolio managers.

“IIROC recognizes the need to engage a diverse group of subject matter experts to assist in the development of competency profiles,” they state. “The participants vary depending upon the category under consideration.”