News release

September 21, 2022 (Toronto, Ontario) – A settlement hearing in the matter of Joyce Elaine Ross (the “Respondent”) was held electronically by videoconference on September 16, 2022 in Vancouver, British Columbia before a three-member Hearing Panel of the Pacific Regional Council of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (“MFDA”).

The Hearing Panel accepted the settlement agreement dated August 22, 2022 (the “Settlement Agreement”), between Staff of the MFDA and the Respondent as a consequence of which the following sanctions were imposed on the Respondent:

• a prohibition from acting as a branch manager or in any supervisory capacity for a Member of the MFDA for a period of two months, commencing September 16, 2022;
• a fine in the amount of $20,000;
• costs in the amount of $2,500; and
• shall in the future comply with MFDA Rule 2.1.1.

In the Settlement Agreement, the Respondent admitted that:

1. between September 28, 2015 and May 25, 2020, she photocopied the signatures pages from account forms that had been signed by 5 clients and re-used the signature pages to complete 16 addition account forms, contrary to MFDA Rule 2.1.1; and
2. between July 30, 2015 and July 17, 2020, she altered and used to process transactions, 12 account forms in respect to 6 clients by altering information on the account forms without having the client initial the alteration, contrary to MFDA Rule 2.1.1.

A copy of the Settlement Agreement is available on the MFDA website at www.mfda.ca. During the period described in the Settlement Agreement, the Respondent conducted business in the Burnaby, British Columbia area.

The MFDA is the self-regulatory organization for Canadian mutual fund dealers, regulating the operations, standards of practice and business conduct of its Members and their approximately 76,695 Approved Persons with a mandate to protect investors and the public interest. For more information about the MFDA’s complaint and enforcement processes, as well as links to ‘Check an Advisor’ and other Investor Tools, visit the For Investors page on the MFDA website.