March 27, 2024
The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) is issuing Directive No. 1R8, Counselling in Insolvency Matters, to provide clarity on the professional designations that may be used to identify Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) Insolvency Counsellors and to facilitate the identification of BIA Insolvency Counsellors by establishing requirements for the use of the professional designations.
The Directive will give the following Official Marks the status of Professional Designations and establish the new requirements for their use:
- “BIA Insolvency Counsellor”,
- “Insolvency Counsellor”,
- “conseiller en insolvabilité au titre de la LFI”, and
- “conseiller en insolvabilité”
The objective of these changes is to ensure that Canadians can recognize and easily identify persons who provide counselling pursuant to the BIA and who are validly registered against a Licensed Insolvency Trustee’s (LIT) licence: the BIA Insolvency Counsellors. The Directive also describes legal consequences that may result from the misrepresentation and/or unauthorized use of the terms.
Insolvency Administrators who are also BIA Insolvency Counsellors may use the Professional Designations in conjunction with their title. LITs offering insolvency counselling do not have the obligation to identify themselves using the Professional Designations.