Scotia Capital Inc., Scotia Securities Inc and Holliswealth Advisory Services Inc. on July 29, 2016 agreed to a no-contest settlement with the OSC over fee overcharges in the amount of nearly $20 million which date back as far as 2009 and affect 45,703 client accounts that were invested in mutual funds, ETFs and structured products. Staff of the OSC determined that the Scotia dealers failed to establish, maintain and apply procedures and to establish controls and supervision. The dealers self-reported the issues to the regulator starting in early 2015. The most sizable wrong was charging an account fee and a trailing commission to 30,218 clients for certain structured products amounting to $10 million in overcharging. Another mispricing of fees occurring when 12,751 clients were not advised that they met the portfolio size threshold necessary to purchase a class of mutual funds with a lower management expense ratio (MER), amounting to overcharges of $8.9 million. Scotia dealers agreed to a voluntary payment of $850,000 to the OSC. As part of the settlement, the dealers do not admit nor deny the allegations.
TD Waterhouse Private Investment Counsel Inc., TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. and TD Investment Services Inc. also agreed to a no-contest settlement back in November 2014 over excess fees resulting from inadequate systems and controls and supervision wherein they agreed to pay $13.5 million to clients and make a payment of $650,000 to the OSC.
The OSC also approved a no-contest settlement agreement with CI Investments on February 10, 2016 in relation to matter that CI Investments had self-reported to the OSC. OSC Staff alleged that investors were buying and selling units from CI Investments at an understated value as a result of insufficient monitoring and oversight of CI Investments's control systems. Approximately $156.1 million was returned to the harmed investors. | 
