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by Mike Caswell

Hidden buyers in private placements may be visible to the public for the first time in seven years, if a plan by the B.C. Securities Commission goes ahead. The regulator announced on Thursday that it would be seeking public comment on its proposed disclosure procedure whereby the names of all placees would be publicly available.

The proposal marks a reversal of the BCSC's policy of hiding the names of individual private placement subscribers. Today, even a freedom of information request will only receive the names of corporate placees, not individuals. In April, 2003, then-chairman Doug Hyndman ordered the commission to stop making the data available, citing the privacy of investors. Since then, the only names released have been those of insiders and brokerage employees (and corporate placees to freedom of information requests). Mr. Hyndman's change was a significant loss of information for the public, as it stripped investors of the ability to discover who was backing many "dicey deals," says Gordon Robertson, a market follower.

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