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A no-contest settlement means the allegations made by OSC staff were neither admitted to nor denied.

The settlement involved excess fees charged to clients of CIBC World Markets Inc., CIBC Investor Services Inc. and CIBC Securities Inc. In some cases, clients in fee-based accounts were charged additional embedded trailer fees on their funds. In other cases, clients had qualified to be invested in a different class of the mutual fund they were in that had a lower management expense ratio due to a higher minimum investment threshold.

In addition to reimbursing clients, including for the opportunity costs of the money they could otherwise have invested, the CIBC dealers have made a payment of $3 million to advance the OSC’s mandate of protecting investors, and $50,000 towards the costs of the investigation.

The settlement with the OSC noted that the CIBC dealers have implemented additional controls and supervision to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

CIBC is the latest in a line of dealers to seek a no-contest settlement with the regulator and devise a plan to reimburse affected clients after discovering that excess fees were being charged. In July, three wealth management companies owned by Bank of Nova Scotia agreed to pay $20-million to clients. TD agreed to pay $13.5 million in November of 2014 after more than 10,000 client accounts were charged excess fees on investments.

“Strong compliance systems are critical to investor protection and market confidence,” said Jeff Kehoe, director of enforcement at the OSC. “We expect registrants to have effective controls in place to deal fairly with clients with regard to fees, and to correct non-compliant conduct in a timely manner.”

To date, the OSC has approved six no-contest settlements, resulting in approximately $270 million in compensation to investors.