Alberta Securities Commission Replaces Key Blanket Order for Over-the-Counter Derivatives

Written By Mark Powell

On January 30^th, 2017, the Alberta Securities Commission (the "ASC") announced in its weekly notice that, effective as of February 1^st, 2017, it is replacing Blanket Order 91-506 entitled Over-the-Counter Trades in Derivatives (the "Current Order") with ASC Blanket Order 91-507 which is also entitled Over-the-Counter Trades in Derivatives (the "New Order"). Both of these orders provide dealer registration exemptions and prospectus exemptions that are widely relied upon in the over-the-counter derivatives marketplace in Alberta.

The changes are not controversial and, as set out in the New Order, the ASC has determined to substantially preserve the scope of the exemptions that existed with the Current Order.

In fact, the changes are helpful in light of amendments made to definitions of "derivative" and "security" in the Securities Act (Alberta) that became effective on May 27, 2016. Those amendments allow for a transaction to be both a derivative and a security whereas, prior to those amendments, the categories were mutually exclusive.

As a practical matter, we suspect that the vast majority of our clients will not need to do anything different in light of the New Order other than to refer to it (instead of the Current Order) in their trading documentation.

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