Help Wanted: Compliance Officer

In these trying times, it will come as a great relief to many to learn that there will be at least one new hire on Bay Street between now and Christmas (2009). The subject of this post is a little unusual for PrefBlog, but I’m just trying to help out and spread the news of a vacancy. And besides, this is hilarious.

How many of youse guys know what a compliance officer at a registered firm does for a living? According to OSC Rule 31-505:

1.3 Designation of Compliance Officer

(1) A registered dealer or adviser shall designate a registered partner or officer as the compliance officer who is responsible for discharging the obligations of the registered dealer or adviser under Ontario securities law.

(2) The person designated under subsection (1) by a registered dealer or adviser shall also be responsible for opening each new account, supervising trades made for or with each client and supervising advice provided to each client or, if a branch manager is designated under subsection 1.4(1), for supervising the branch manager’s conduct of the activities specified in subsection 1.4(2).

(3) Despite subsections (1) and (2), the designated compliance officer may delegate supervisory functions to an individual who reports to the compliance officer and who meets the proficiency requirements under Rule 31-502 Proficiency Requirements for Registrants for a salesperson in the same category of registration as the dealer or an officer in the same category of registration as the adviser, that has in each case designated the compliance officer.

(4) An applicant for registration or reinstatement of registration as a dealer or adviser shall deliver to the Commission, with the application, written notice of the name of the person proposed to be designated under subsection (1).

The Globe and Mail reports:

He’d soon approach the desk. He’d demand cash, threaten the teller and often say he had a gun – although no weapon was ever seen. Sometimes he was given cash; other times he came out empty-handed. But in each case he ran, and got away.

And so it continued, since 2003, in some 26 suspected robberies carried out by the “exchange bandit.” The most recent happened last month, and this week, the Canadian Bankers Association decided that was enough.

On Thursday, it offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thief

On Friday morning, they got a break. A 37-year-old vice-president of a Toronto investment firm walked into a downtown police station, with his lawyer, and turned himself in.

A compliance officer with Paradigm Capital in Toronto’s financial district, Kevin John Pinto’s job was to make sure his company’s deals were all within regulation and above-board. On Friday, Mr. Pinto was charged by Toronto police with 10 bank robberies. More charges from other regions are expected, Constable Tony Vella said.

Friday night, Paradigm Capital confirmed Mr. Pinto had been an employee since January, 2006. Chief executive officer David Roland said the company found out about the allegations Friday afternoon, suspended Mr. Pinto, began contacting all the regulatory bodies which may need to investigate, while striking up an investigation of its own.

Paradigm has 37 registrants. Kevin Pinto was only the Vice President, Compliance; the Chief Compliance Officer is Michael Ward, CA. Mr. Pinto has been suspended.

The Toronto police published a news release about his surrender and arrest. What gets me is:

the latest robbery occurred in Toronto on Friday, September 12, 2008, at Scotiabank, 44 King Street West.

and Paradigm’s address is:

95 Wellington Street West, Suite 2101, P.O. Box 55, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5J 2N7

What did he do? Walk up during lunch?

Update, 2008-10-08: Via Financial Webring Forum, some colour from the Star.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.