The entrance to the Ontario Securities Commission offices in Toronto are seen in this file photo.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Manulife Securities has reached a settlement with the Ontario Securities Commission after charging some clients incorrect investment fees for certain mutual-fund products and fee-based accounts for more than a decade.
In a statement of allegations published Tuesday, the OSC said the excess of fees charged were found in client accounts at the investment dealer Manulife Securities Inc. and mutual fund dealer Manulife Securities Investment Services Inc., two subsidiaries of Canadian insurance giant Manulife Financial Corp.
The amount of fees overcharged to investors has not yet been disclosed.
The OSC will hold a hearing on July 13 in Toronto to consider whether it is in the public interest to approve a no-contest settlement agreement. It said it has found no evidence of dishonest conduct by the Manulife dealers.
Manulife self-reported the problems in its systems of controls and supervision to the OSC starting in June, 2015.
Manulife is the latest in a string of Canadian financial institutions to have agreed to similar no-contest settlements with the regulator after inadequacies in their compliance systems resulted in overcharging clients.
Last month, Royal Bank of Canada agreed to pay $21.8-million in compensation to more than 50,000 clients who were charged excess fees. In 2016, a number of subsidiaries of Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Scotia Capital Inc. were hit with similar compliance issues.