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Now’s the time for investment dealers to start prepping for new client identifier requirements due to take effect next summer, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) says.

In a notice, IIROC reminded the industry that rule changes to introduce new client identifier requirements for listed securities are slated for July 26, 2021.

“Given the high complexity and risks associated with this implementation,” IIROC said, it’s important for dealers to start their implementation process so they can be compliant by next summer.

The identifiers for listed securities were originally supposed to be adopted by October of this year. In March, IIROC decided to delay the new requirements after discovering they were more complex than initially expected and carried significant systems implementation risks.

Those risks include the impact on encryption processes and the need to create and maintain client identifier databases.

The new provisions are being adopted in an effort to enhance regulators’ surveillance and investigative capabilities, and follow a push from the G20 to enhance market oversight in the wake of the financial crisis.

Starting in April next year, trading venues will begin supporting the new requirements and dealers can start sending orders with the new identifiers on a voluntary basis. This will become mandatory in July.

The identifier requirements for debt transactions were adopted in October 2019.