CIRI Advocacy Garners Results as SEDAR Provides Near Real-time Access to Company Filings to All Market Participants

TORONTO, April 3, 2013 /CNW/ - The Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI) today announced that it has made progress on advocacy efforts with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) to gain equal access for all stakeholders to information filed by publicly traded companies on SEDAR (System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval).

Late last week the CSA issued Staff Notice 13-318 Changes to www.SEDAR.com indicating that they will be implementing changes to the website architecture to allow all market participants to have access to company filings 15 minutes after the original submission, instead of the following day. These changes will be implemented on April 6, 2013.

"We commend the CSA for implementing this significant improvement to SEDAR that enables near real-time access for all capital market participants," said Yvette Lokker, President & CEO of CIRI. "Providing all investors with equal and timely access to company filings fosters a fair and efficient capital market, which is central to CIRI's mandate."

CIRI began advocating for equal access to company filing content on SEDAR in September 2011. The current two-tier system allows fee-paying subscribers to access company filings on a near real-time basis on SEDAR-SCRIBE while non-subscribers have next-day access on SEDAR for free. CIRI strongly believes that having two levels of access on SEDAR is inconsistent with the securities regulators intent to foster fair and efficient capital markets and to provide all investors with timely, accurate information on which to base investment decisions.

CIRI will continue to engage with the CSA as they work to leverage modern and available technologies in the construction of a new system that will ultimately replace SEDAR.

About CIRI

CIRI is a professional, not-for-profit association of executives responsible for communication between public corporations, investors and the financial community. CIRI contributes to the transparency and integrity of the Canadian capital market by advancing the practice of investor relations, the professional competency of its members and the stature of the profession. With more than 650 members and four chapters across the country, CIRI is the voice of IR in Canada. For further information, please visit CIRI.org.

SOURCE: Canadian Investor Relations Institute

Yvette Lokker
President & CEO
Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI)
[phone]
[email protected]