The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec posted a return of 4.6% in the first six months of the year, but its executives set the stage Tuesday for more uncertainty in the months ahead.

The Caisse outperformed its benchmark index, which rose 4.3%, according to its mid-year financial results. Over five years, the investment fund’s average return was 7.7%, compared with 6.6% for its benchmark index.

Despite positive returns, president and CEO Charles Emond stressed the environment remains uncertain for investors.

“I would say that there are more downside risks than upside risks,” Emond warned at a press conference on Tuesday to discuss the fund’s mid-year results.

“That calls for caution in this environment.”

The effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies have not yet been fully felt, he said.

Emond said that U.S. tariffs would slow down the U.S. economy while increasing prices. The Federal Reserve could find itself faced with a dilemma between cutting rates to stimulate the economy or raising them to counter inflation.

The first half of the year has not been easy for investors. Trade tensions between the U.S. and its main trading partners have caused turmoil on the stock markets. “April was the seventh most volatile month in history,” said Vincent Delisle, executive vice-president and head of liquid markets.

The Caisse outperformed its benchmark index for equities and fixed income. However, its real estate portfolio continues to lag behind, with a return of 0.1% over six months, compared with 1.2% for the benchmark index. Over five years, the portfolio is flat, with an annual return of 0.3%, slightly below the index at 0.4%. 

The Caisse suffered from its concentration in certain office markets in the United States, where remote working is more common than in Europe.

Emond defended 2025 as a “transition” year.

“We are still seeing employers wanting to bring their employees back,” he said.

“So that’s encouraging. We’re also seeing occupancy rates improving in New York, among other places.”

The Caisse’s net assets grew by $23 billion in the first six months of the year to $496 billion.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity held steady in the second quarter, but the value of dealmaking soared thanks to a handful of mega deals, according to new data from Crosbie & Co. Inc.

There were 611 M&A deals announced in the second quarter, largely unchanged from the 615 transactions reported in the first quarter, the Toronto-based firm said.

Deal volume remains on the weak side amid continued uncertainty driven by erratic U.S. trade policy. Over the past four years, second-quarter deal volume has averaged 781 transactions.

“The quarter opened under the shadow of President Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement. While many proposed measures have been delayed or revised, ongoing policy shifts continue to create uncertainty for companies,” Crosbie noted in its report. “Still, strategic and high-quality assets remain in demand, and where the rationale is strong, deals are getting done.”

While the number of transactions remains relatively low, the value of deals in the second quarter rose sharply to $114 billion, up 82% from the prior quarter — driven by a handful of deals valued at more than $10 billion.

There were 21 so-called mega deals (valued at over $1 billion) worth a combined $97 billion in the second quarter, including three deals exceeding $10 billion. The largest was Sunoco’s $14.3-billion acquisition of Parkland Corp. to create the largest fuel distributor in North America.

“In the face of uncertainty resulting from the U.S. trade war, the M&A markets are exhibiting some green shoots with many large deals being announced,” said Richard Betsalel, managing director at Crosbie & Co., in a release.

“This uptick in mega-deal M&A activity should eventually trickle down to the broader market as the backlog of companies looking to transact continues to grow. In addition, market fundamentals in many sectors remain supportive, financing markets are open and many strategic and financial buyers continue to actively search for new M&A opportunities,” he added.

In the second quarter, mid-market transactions (valued under $250 million) accounted for 85% of total deal activity.

The industrials sector led in deal volume with more than 100 transactions, followed by the tech and mining sectors with 83 deals each. Deal activity also rose in the precious metals, materials and industrials sectors.

By deal value, the energy sector was the top driver of activity, with $43.9 billion in second-quarter M&A. The tech sector was a distant second with $18.4 billion in deals.

“Looking forward, M&A is expected to be used to help manage risk and tariff exposure,” Crosbie said. “Acquisitions can help secure supply chains and provide flexibility under fluid and evolving trade rules.”

Scotiabank has partnered with credit analytics company Nova Credit to let newcomers use their international credit history to apply for credit cards with higher limits in Canada, the bank announced Tuesday.

The program, Credit Passport, is for those who have been in Canada for less than five years and works with select countries. Scotiabank first partnered with Nova Credit in 2023 and says it is the first Canadian bank to embed this process directly into its online credit card application process.

The Credit Passport integration reduces the number of times newcomers need to visit a bank branch.

“We understand that building a new life in a new country comes with challenges,” said Kingsley Chak, senior vice-president of retail client value, deposits and investments at Scotiabank. “Scotiabank is helping remove some of those hurdles, empowering newcomers to begin their financial journey in Canada with confidence.”

Separately, a TD survey showed that 79% of newcomers who have spent five years or less in Canada and applied for credit said it’s difficult to start building a credit history in this country.

Over nine-tenths (92%) of respondents said they applied for credit cards, followed by car loans (18%) and mortgages (13%).

The newcomers surveyed said their lack of access to credit led to higher interest rates (27%), difficulty securing housing (27%) and the inability to save or invest for future goals (24%), among other concerns.

“With many new Canadians experiencing stress and anxiety, loan access restrictions or difficulty achieving their unique financial goals, the need for tailored solutions is evident,” said Muhammad Kara, associate vice-president of new to Canada and everyday advice journey at TD.

CIBC is making changes to its senior executive ranks ahead of Harry Culham’s move into the role of president and chief executive later this year.

The bank says Christian Exshaw will be appointed senior executive vice-president and group head, capital markets, while Kevin Li will be appointed senior executive vice-president and group head, U.S. region, as well as president and CEO of CIBC Bank USA.

CIBC also says Christina Kramer will be appointed senior executive vice-president and chief administrative officer.

Hratch Panossian, senior executive vice-president and group head, personal and business banking, will add contact centres and client marketing to his mandate, while Susan Rimmer, senior executive vice-president and group head, commercial banking and wealth management, will add oversight of CIBC Caribbean.

Amy South will be appointed executive vice-president, office of the CEO and chief of staff, and Stephen Scholtz will be appointed global chief legal officer.

Culham, who had led CIBC’s capital markets business, was appointed chief operating officer earlier this year ahead of his move to the CEO suite on Nov. 1 to succeed Victor Dodig in the top job.

Online discount brokers will be able to push more information to do-it-yourself investors, and provide them with a broader array of tools to facilitate their investing decisions, under new guidance being proposed by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO). The self-regulatory organization (SRO) seeks to draw a clearer boundary between full-service firms and so-called order execution only dealers (OEO dealers).

The new guidance, which is out for public comment until Nov. 10, aims to address the demand from industry firms that are keen to expand the communications that they can have with investors, without going offside of the long-standing prohibition on discount brokers providing investors with advice. It also addresses the growing concerns that regulators have about investors’ increasing reliance on unregulated sources of investment information, such as finfluencers and social media generally.

“Our objective … is to provide flexibility that allows OEO dealers to better service clients’ needs in this channel without compromising investor protection … while remaining consistent with the [dealer] rules, which prohibit recommendations in OEO accounts,” CIRO said in a notice detailing its proposals.

To that end, the SRO is seeking to tighten its guidance around the prohibition on the provision of advice by discount brokers.

Under the current guidance, discount brokers are prohibited from providing investors with communications that could “reasonably be expected to influence” investors’ specific investing decisions — an approach that has made dealers cautious about providing information to investors that could be construed as driving their investing decisions, and putting firms offside with regulators.

Yet, at the same time, the online availability of investing material has grown exponentially in recent years, exposing investors to a vast, unregulated trove of information — and misinformation — that may well be influencing investors’ decisions.

In response, CIRO is now proposing to tighten its guidance to allow OEO dealers to provide a broader array of communications — including alerts, notifications, tools and sample portfolios — without straying over the line into providing specific advice.

“The new guidance clarifies that OEO dealers are allowed to provide informative resources and decision-making supports to clients as long as they do not endorse a specific investment decision and are provided with adequate safeguards,” the SRO explains in its consultation.

Under the proposed new guidance, discount brokers would be allowed to, “send targeted, proactive communications to clients as long as they are purely educational and do not endorse any specific investment decisions.”

The regulators hope that by expanding the ability of OEO dealers to communicate with investors, this will “help reduce investors’ reliance on social media or other non-regulated sources, fostering more confident and informed investment decisions.”

No free-for-all

At the same time, the regulators aim to maintain the prohibition on discount brokers straying into the provision of advice, which means that it also won’t be a free-for-all in terms of what firms are allowed to send to investors — dealers will still have to be wary of overstepping that line.

For instance, the proposed guidance indicates that the provision of multiple pieces of information that, taken together, amount to pushing a specific investment decision would still be prohibited.

Additionally, under the proposed guidance, firms would not be allowed to select specific investment products for sample portfolios that are provided to clients, again for fear that this could stray into driving an investment decision.

“OEO dealers cannot avoid the revised recommendation prohibition by simply stating that a sample portfolio is not tailored to a specific client if, in every other regard, it meets the test of a recommendation,” the proposals said.

“Ultimately, the proposed guidance seeks to strike an appropriate balance between empowering investors to make informed decisions for themselves, promoting healthy capital markets by addressing the types of decision-making supports that OEO dealers can opt to offer to their clients and maintaining adequate investor protection,” the SRO said.

“Relying on unverified sources of information could put investors at significant risk of financial harm,” said Alexandra Williams, senior vice-president, strategy, innovation and stakeholder protection at CIRO, in a release.

“Giving investors greater access to high-quality, trustworthy and timely information from OEO dealers will not only help them make informed, confident investment decisions, but could also reduce their reliance on unregulated sources that may be providing incomplete, biased or misleading advice,” she added.

A life agent who created a GoFundMe fundraiser to help a client who was unable to access funds locked into a life insurance policy has been sanctioned by the Insurance Council of British Columbia (ICBC).

The regulator ordered the agent, Mengyuan Li, to complete certain ethics courses by Nov. 3 and to pay $3,125 in costs, after finding that she breached its rules and code of conduct by providing false income and employment information on a client’s whole life policy, setting up a GoFundMe to help the client when they needed money, and improperly using an insurer’s logo on a client presentation.

According to the regulator’s order, in 2021, Li opened an RRSP, a TFSA that required a weekly premium and a whole life policy for a new client, who was a student at the time.

In late 2022, the student filed a complaint alleging that she had misrepresented his employment and inflated his income on the policy application. He also claimed that he was told he could recover the premiums if he stopped paying them within a certain timeframe.

At the time, he was still a student and had no annual earnings, yet the policy listed him as self-employed with an $85,000 annual income.

According to the order, Li couldn’t remember whether it was the client or another agent who provided the income information, but that “she wrote down what she was told” and didn’t typically require income verification.

“She admitted that she genuinely believed the [client] was working at the time and never questioned whether he was a student,” the order said.

The regulator concluded that she breached the rules by improperly documenting the client’s income, although it said it was not clear where the incorrect information came from.

“Since she was new to the industry, it appeared she simply took down instructions that she was provided, without conducting further due diligence,” it said.

The council concluded that Li wasn’t fully responsible for the mistake because the client had the opportunity to read the policy and correct the mistake, and he ultimately signed it. It considered the possibility that he used the incorrect income information as an excuse to get out of the policy.

Additionally, the client complained that after he tried to withdraw the $11,000 he had paid in premiums from the policy to pay a relative’s medical bills, and was told he couldn’t access that money, Li created a GoFundMe account to help raise money for those bills and donated $5 to it, it noted.

“When the [client] learned the GoFundMe account was open to public donations, he deleted the account and made a formal complaint,” it said.

According to the order, Li said she created the fundraiser “because she understood the tough circumstances the [client] was in and that because she was unable to cancel the policy and return his premiums, she wanted to do what she could to help him in her personal capacity.”

The council found that she breached her obligation of client confidentiality by creating the GoFundMe account based on information about his financial circumstances that she learned in a professional capacity.

“Council believed [Li] had good intentions but noted that she did not seek out more appropriate alternatives to help her client,” it said. “… although this may not have been the best method to remedy the situation, it was well-intended and [she] sincerely tried to help the [client].”

Additionally, she co-operated in the investigation, it noted, in handing down sanctions.

A fund rep who raised over $3 million from several clients to finance the expansion of his business has settled charges that he breached securities rules by engaging in undisclosed personal financial activities with clients.

A hearing panel of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) approved a proposed settlement with Jeremy Earl Clark, a former rep with Investia Financial Services in Calgary, who admitted to breaching the self-regulatory organization’s rules.

According to the settlement, between 2019 and October 2022, Clark raised $1.6 million from a handful of clients to fund the expansion of his firm, CH Financial Ltd. It provides various services alongside the fund business, including financial planning, wills and estates services, tax preparation, loans and mortgages and insurance services. The investors became shareholders in the firm as a result.

Additionally, in 2022, the firm borrowed $1.5 million from another client. That money was repaid by mid-2023.

However, by engaging in these transactions and not disclosing them to his dealer, the SRO alleged that Clark violated its rules. It also alleged that he made misleading statements to his dealer when he failed to disclose the arrangements with clients.

According to the settlement, none of the shareholder clients have complained about their investments. They also provided the SRO with letters indicating that they were aware of the risks of investing in the firm and that they want to remain shareholders.

Under the settlement, Clark was fined $80,000, ordered to pay costs of $5,000 and banned from conducting securities-related business for 12 months.

Clark was terminated by his dealer on March 6, 2023, following its investigation into the personal financial dealings. He is not currently registered.

A former mutual fund rep, who was banned by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) 27 years ago, is now facing fraud allegations.

Back in 1998, an OSC hearing panel ordered that Dino Delellis — who was a fund rep with The Height of Excellence Financial Planning Group Inc. in London, Ont. — was permanently banned from registration after it found that he breached a number of securities rules in connection with the sale of a series of limited partnerships that invested in a cattle breeding scheme.

Among other things, the panel found that Delellis accepted undisclosed commissions, made misrepresentations to investors, and breached his fiduciary duty to investors.

Now, following an investigation by the OSC’s Criminal Investigations & Prosecutions team, Delellis has been charged with fraud and “making a prohibited representation” to investors, the regulator announced.

The new allegations have not been proven.

Delellis is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 2 to answer those charges.

The OSC alleged that Delellis defrauded a couple of investors between July 2022 and the end of 2023.

“Specifically, it is alleged that Mr. Delellis used investor money for personal expenses, failed to invest funds as promised, promised to repay losses if one of the investors bought securities from him, and used a fake name to obscure his record of securities misconduct,” the regulator said in a release.

In 2020, a rep with CIBC World Markets Inc. was also sanctioned for his involvement with a so-called “gifting club” that he was introduced to by Delellis — which regulators found amounted to a pyramid scheme.

ATB Financial has signed a deal to acquire Cormark Securities Inc., an independent investment bank with offices in Toronto and Calgary.

ATB did not disclose the deal’s financial details.

Cormark provides investment banking, equity research coverage and institutional sales and trading to clients in Canada and internationally.

“The partnership will allow us to significantly increase our broker-dealer scale, enhance our multiproduct coverage (including investment banking, corporate banking, equities, equity research and fixed income, currencies and commodities) and establish a stronger presence across Canada and the U.S. to drive more deals and attract top talent,” Curtis Stange, president and CEO of ATB Financial said in an email.

Cormark will be fully integrated into the ATB Capital Markets, Stange said. Under the deal, ATB Capital Markets and Cormark will integrate their operations under ATB Capital Markets’ CEO Darren Eurich. Cormark’s teams and systems will be integrated into ATB’s existing technology, policies and operations.

Cormark executive chairman Scott Lamacraft will be executive chair, while Cormark chief executive Susan Streeter will become head of strategy and growth.

The companies said the acquisition is expected to close in the fall pending customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

Investment banking advisory Fort Capital Partners is acquiring Acquatio, an advisor that specializes in M&A dealmaking in the wealth management industry. The new company will advise wealth and asset management firms, according to a release shared first with Advisor.ca.

“The launch of Fort Capital FS reflects our belief that independent firms deserve independent advice,” said Dave Bustos, founder of Fort Capital Partners, in a release. “We’re thrilled to welcome the Acquatio team to Fort Capital and to expand our platform with professionals who share our values.”

Joe Millott, Acquatio founder and principal, told us in an email interview that the two firms “share a view of where the industry is heading. This is a pivotal time in wealth management, and we want to help clients navigate it with an approach that’s highly tailored and truly independent,” he said.

“Fort Capital has built a strong national presence, with offices in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto,” Millott said. “Their team includes experienced partners and execution professionals across the country. That footprint will help support the deal flow we’re already seeing, and it gives us more reach to handle what’s coming.”

Millott is joining Fort Capital as a partner. Ben Ewasko has accepted a vice-president role.

The new firm’s value proposition leans heavily on independence.

“In Canada, the large banks dominate wealth management through their brokerages and investment counselling arms,” said Millott. “For independent firms trying to win market share from those incumbents, hiring a bank-owned advisor introduces a built-in conflict. You’re asking someone to help you grow at the expense of their own parent company.”

BMO Wealth Management’s purchase of Burgundy Asset Management Ltd., announced in June, is a case in point. Independents KMS Capital, Origin Merchant Partners and PJT Partners advised Burgundy on the transaction, according to BMO Capital Markets.

Deal volumes to pick up

M&A activity was expected to pop this year, as a result of the post-Covid drop in interest rates and pent-up demand — particularly in the wealth management sector. Despite a couple of headline announcements, 2025 has not met expectations so far.

Millott said the market is heating up though, particularly in the $500 million to $5 billion valuation segment.

“We’re already seeing it,” he said. “Many firm owners are realizing that internal succession isn’t realistic. That’s pushing more of them to start preparing for a sale. At the same time, private equity-backed groups are aggressively looking for opportunities and international buyers are paying close attention to Canada. All of that points to a strong back half of 2025, and even more activity in 2026.”

Vancouver-based Fort Capital was founded in 2014. Acquatio is headquartered in Toronto, and was founded in 2023.