Here are the top reads on deals and financial services over the last 24 hours:
Mutual fund review: After a half-decade of study and consultations, Canada’s securities regulators have released their final recommendations for changing mutual fund fees – but the proposals fell short of what many industry players expected. Under the new rules, regulators will prohibit deferred sales charges, or DSCs, but they stopped short of banning trailing commissions. Trailer fees, which are embedded commissions paid by mutual-fund companies to compensate financial advisers and firms that sell their funds, were widely viewed as the main target of the regulators’ initial review. Story (Tim Kiladze)
It just became clear we’ll never see an investment industry where clients must come first: The dream of creating a standard of transparent, client-focused service in the investment industry died Thursday. It was replaced with a scattering of proposals from a group of provincial securities regulators that will certainly help investors. Notably, advisers would be required to recommend investments to clients that are suitable in cost as well as other factors such as risk. Opinion (Rob Carrick)
Restructuring: Manulife Financial Corp. is retooling its Canadian business, reducing staff and collapsing office space in an effort to cut costs and improve customer service. The Toronto-based insurance and investment company plans to eliminate 700 positions in its Canadian work force over 18 months through a voluntary severance plan and some attrition. Story (Jacqueline Nelson, for subscribers)
Takeovers: Six months into the explosive rise of Canada’s nascent marijuana industry, Aurora Cannabis Inc. has established itself as a bold deal-maker. Underlying this growth is a takeover strategy that’s pretty unconventional. Aurora is the only Canadian marijuana company to launch two billion-dollar takeovers. To secure both, it has relied on the same playbook: Privately negotiating with its targets’ largest shareholders, rather than wooing management or directors. Story (Tim Kiladze and Christina Pellegrini, for subscribers)
MORE FINANCIAL SERVICES NEWS
Bank stocks: Royal Bank’s pain is Toronto-Dominion’s gain. Shares of Royal Bank of Canada are losing ground to its biggest rival, Toronto-Dominion Bank, which rose to a record on Wednesday. TD’s returns more than doubled its Canadian competitor in the past year, eliminating the premium RBC shares enjoyed for the better part of a decade. Story
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Executive Compensation : Why Canadian CEO pay has soared over the past decade: Our special report on executive compensation. Story (Janet McFarland, for subscribers) and full tables.
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