Fee Payment Structure

How OBSI determines and charges fees to participating firms

OBSI is a not-for-profit organization that operates on a cost recovery basis.

OBSI's budget and the allocation of this budget between the different industry sectors that use OBSI's services is approved by OBSI's Board of Directors each September. This allocation is founded on the principle that no one sector or registrant category should subsidize another.

For fee purposes, OBSI has five industry sectors:

1. Banks and deposit taking institutions;
2. Investment firms that are members of Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), which include investment dealers and mutual fund dealers;
3. Investment firms that are not members of CIRO, which includes portfolio managers (PMs), exempt market dealers (EMDs), Restricted Portfolio Managers, Restricted Dealers and Investment Fund Managers; 
4. Scholarship plan dealers (SPDs); and
5. Provincial credit unions.

Sector Allocation

The allocation of the budget among the five industry sectors is based on the total number and complexity of the cases opened for each sector in the previously completed year.

Once the budget has been allocated to each sector, fees for each firm in the sector are determined. This determination is made on the basis of firm size as described below.

Bank fees

For banks and other deposit-taking firms, the banking sector allocation is divided among institutions on the basis of their self-declared Canadian banking assets relative to other banks in the most recent benchmark year. Our current benchmark year is 2021. Banks and deposit taking institutions with assets under $3 billion and foreign bank branches with no recent complaints history pay a flat annual fee of $2,400. OBSI invoices each bank directly on an annual basis.

CIRO member fees

For CIRO member fees, there is a further allocation between investment dealers and mutual fund dealers based on their proportionate share of cases opened over a trailing eight quarter period. CIRO then allocates firm-specific fees among their firms using their own membership payment calculation methodology. 

Non-CIRO member and SPD fees

For all other investment firms, fees are paid based on each firm's number of registered representatives. The per representative fee is determined by dividing the sector's budget allocation by the total number of representatives reported for the sector in the previous year. To determine their fees, firms log onto OBSI's online firm portal and use the fee calculator to input their total number of registered representatives for the current fiscal year (excluding those representatives that work exclusively in Quebec or deal exclusively with permitted clients). An invoice is created and firms pay OBSI directly.

Provincial Credit Union fees

Starting in 2022, OBSI created a new sector for provincially regulated credit unions. Previously these credit unions were combined within the banking sector. Like banks, the sector allocation is divided based on assets and there is a minimum fee available as well.