CIRO staff has notified us that they have been receiving a large volume of calls and emails from mutual fund dealer CE participants related to information that has already been addressed and made available on the MFDA website. They have also been receiving questions specific to policies and procedures at HUB Capital Inc. This message is to provide some additional information on existing resources and to help answer some commonly-asked questions.

1. CIRO published guidance

If you have questions related to the MFD CE program or CERTS, before contacting CIRO, please first review their published guidance as follows: 

2. HUB Capital Inc. resources

For questions about firm-specific policies and procedures, refer to Compliance Bulletin #2023-02: REMINDER – New SRO (formerly MFDA) Continuing Education (“CE”) Requirements.

Please contact your Regional Compliance Officer for other firm-specific information. 

3. CE Requirements and available resources

All MFD CE Participants can find their specific CE credit requirements on CERTS. 

If you’re looking for resources to satisfy your CE credit requirements, here are some options: 

  • Review the course catalogue in CERTS, which can be exported to view all the CE activities.
  • The legacy IIROC and MFDA websites provide a listing of CE activities offered by the respective organizations that qualify for CE credits.
  • Visit the CE Corner in HUBLink for additional resources.

Note that Education Service Providers are responsible for posting their CE activities to CERTS. If a CE activity is not posted, please contact the Education Service Provider. 

4. Accessing CERTS

Here is some helpful information when accessing the CERTS system: 

  • The address to log into CERTS is https://crm.mfda.ca.
  • The MFD CE Participant MFDA ID, which is also your username, has been uniquely assigned by CIRO. It is not your NRD number or employee ID.
  • If you cannot recall your username and/or password, use the “forgot username” and/or “forgot password” functionality on the CERTS login page which will provide an immediate email response. 
    • If you get the following message: “We could not find your information in our system. Please search again or contact us for assistance.”, please verify that you have entered your HUB Capital Inc. email address. If you continue to get the error message, please contact your Regional Compliance Officer to confirm the email address we submitted on your behalf.
  • You can only make five (5) incorrect login attempts after which your account will be locked and it can take two days or more to resolve. If you would like access to your account sooner, a helpful suggestion is to use the “forgot password” or “forgot username” functionality before your fifth attempt.

5. Understanding the information in CERTS

Here is some information to keep in mind when reviewing your information in the CERTS system: 

  • Entry of Attendance  
    • You are responsible for entering your attendance for completed CE activities in CERTS. HUB Capital Inc. is not entering attendance records on CERTS on your behalf. For more information please click here.
  • CIRO automatically updates attendance records for the two (2) mandatory compliance credits in the month after the MFD CE participant has viewed the entire webcast. So, for example, if you complete the webcast in July 2023, you will be credited by early August 2023.
  • If you are not sure why you have outstanding credit requirements on CERTS, please check the following: 
    • Have you completed the two (2) mandatory compliance credits? Log into CERTS and select “Register for MFDA Activities” in the right hand action menu to confirm.
    • Was one or more CE activity completed outside of the CE activity’s accreditation period or before you became registered?
    • Have you reached the maximum allowable number of credits in a particular credit category?
      • Business Conduct (“BC”) credit requirements are divided between ethics and non-ethics credits. Participants with the full eight (8) BC credit requirements must earn a minimum of one (1) but a maximum of two (2) BC credits related to ethics. The remaining BC credits must be non-ethics credits.

6. Manner of conduct when communicating with CIRO staff

CIRO has notified us that that their staff has, on rare occasions, been subject to rude or abusive behaviour from CE participants. Such behaviour is unacceptable. Please be professional and respectful when relaying your questions and concerns. You must always conduct yourself in a manner that reflects the high standards of your profession and the values of HUB Capital Inc.

If you have any questions about the above or require any assistance related to your MFD CE credits, please reach out to your Regional Compliance Officer.

Julie Yim
Director Investment Compliance