OSC and Manulife reach settlement deal after clients wrongly paid excess fees

A pedestrian walks past the Manulife building in downtown Vancouver, on May 3, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

TORONTO - The Ontario Securities Commission says it has reached a preliminary settlement deal with Manulife Securities Inc. after a number of clients were inadvertently charged excessive investment fees.

According to a statement of allegations, Manulife notified the provincial financial regulator in June 2015 that it discovered "inadequacies" in its payment systems that led to certain clients directly or indirectly being billed excess fees.

The extraneous fees, which were paid from 2005 and into 2007, went undetected by the company.

The statement says that Manulife has taken "corrective action" and has since implemented additional controls and monitoring systems to prevent the inadequacies from occurring in the future. It also told the OSC that it plans to pay appropriate compensation to those affected clients.

The commission staff says in the statement that it has not found any evidence of "dishonest conduct" by Manulife.

The OSC has scheduled a hearing to approve the no-contest settlement agreement on July 13.