BCFSA Launches New Process for Publication of Notices, Decisions

BCFSA has developed a new Administrative Process: Publication of Regulatory Actions to offer clarity around the publication of Notices of Hearings, Decisions and other regulatory actions and to set out how long they will be publicly available.

The new process aims to provide a more consistent approach across BCFSA’s regulated segments to enhance fairness, promote transparency and accountability and increase public confidence in the financial services sector and BCFSA.

As a general practice, all Notices of Hearings and Decisions will be publicly available and searchable on the BCFSA website.

Decisions will remain on the BCFSA website in perpetuity and will also be posted to CanLII, an open online platform for judicial decisions and legislation in Canada. However, the process also sets out how long BCFSA will link discipline or suspensions orders to its search function for real estate licensees and mortgage brokers.

For example, consent orders, discipline orders, and administrative penalties over $2,500, will be linked to the real estate licensee search function on BCFSA’s website for the following duration:

• 10 years for orders involving a suspension of licence; and
• 5 years for all other orders and administrative penalties over $2,500.

At the end of the above time periods, the orders and administrative penalties will be removed from the licensee search function but will remain on BCFSA’s website. Similar rules are in effect for compliance orders related to mortgage brokers.

The Administrative Process also includes information around the publication of Freedom of Information, Investigative Information and Publication in Reports, Databases and Media Releases.