CIRO settlement details missed red flags on trade volume, suitability and aggressive margin use
A single advisor’s “high trade volume,” heavy margin use and concentrated bets on higher risk technology stocks have left National Bank Financial Inc. (NBF) facing a $1m fine for supervision failures.
On March 3, 2026, a hearing panel of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) accepted a settlement agreement under the Investment Dealer and Partially Consolidated Rules between CIRO Enforcement Staff and NBF.
The agreement states that, between April 2021 and August 2022, NBF failed to adequately supervise registered representative Matthew Philip Ewing “with respect to note‑taking and suitability,” contrary to Dealer Member Rules 38.1 and 2500 (prior to January 1, 2022) and Investment Dealer and Partially Consolidated Rule 3900 (after January 1, 2022).
NBF agreed to pay a fine of $1,000,000 and costs of $50,000.
Ewing joined NBF in March 2021 after previous registration with BMO Nesbitt Burns and RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (RBCDS), where he had been under internal supervision between September 2020 and January 2021.
Most of his RBCDS clients transferred to NBF, often with existing margin debt.
Ewing was not registered or qualified as a portfolio manager, and none of the accounts for which he was RR of record at NBF were approved as discretionary.
Trading activity in his book surged. In April 2021, the first month following the transfers, Ewing and his associate, Philip Soares, averaged 267 trades per day; between May and December 2021, there were eight trading days with more than 200 trades. The settlement notes this volume as a red flag as to whether Ewing obtained instructions for each trade.
NBF performed daily trade reviews from April to December 2021 and questioned Ewing about his trading volume and note‑taking.
However, supervisors only sampled a small number of trades and did not sufficiently question missing or inadequate notes to uncover potential discretionary trading.
In April 2021, a trade volume report listed 5,887 trades, but NBF requested notes for just 12, all of which were inadequate.
Ewing told NBF that he opened dozens of trade windows on his laptop each morning, entered details without sending orders, then called clients with recommendations and had himself or Soares hit “send” if clients agreed.
The settlement says the small sample size, poor notes and this explanation should have prompted NBF to insist on proper client notes confirming instructions; NBF did not do so.
On August 12, 2021, IIROC (now CIRO) notified NBF that it had opened an investigation into Ewing, including allegations of discretionary trading.
NBF’s review of June and July 2021 trade volume reports found that 49 percent of reviewed June trades and 17 percent of reviewed July trades lacked notes.
NBF sent an inquiry on August 30, 2021 about 13 July trades, 12 of which had no notes; Ewing did not provide the missing notes, yet NBF closed the inquiry.
A note‑taking meeting on October 24, 2021 did not resolve the problem, and Ewing never fully answered questions about December 2021 trades despite follow‑ups into mid‑2022.
Suitability and margin issues compounded the supervisory gap.
On December 7, 2021, NBF documented that almost 35 percent of Ewing’s book was invested in six higher risk securities—Intercept Pharma, Luckin Coffee Inc, Root Inc, Skillz Inc, Baidu Inc and Jumia Technologies—and that some client holdings were inconsistent with their stated account objectives and the firm’s allowed equity percentages.
NBF sent queries to Ewing, 21 “comfort letters” on concentration issues between September 2021 and September 2022, and 21 confirmation letters on December 7, 2021.
Five clients replied that they were satisfied with Ewing’s services, and none contacted NBF in response to the comfort letters.
The settlement concludes that NBF should have taken more timely and further steps to obtain proper and complete information from Ewing to address apparent suitability issues.
Margin use escalated as well.
The April 2021 month‑end margin report listed 61 of Ewing’s client accounts using margin; by November 2021, that number had risen to 101, with 251 margin calls in 16 days in August and 260 margin calls in 17 days in November.
Although some NBF personnel knew of the margin call volume, NBF took no appropriate action until December 2021 to analyse account profiles or holdings.
On December 7, 2021, NBF recorded that Ewing had more clients using margin than any other NBF advisor and demanded explanations, including for clients over age 60. Ewing did not provide the requested information.
On December 8, 2021, NBF implemented an Action Plan requiring all margin to be reduced to zero by May 30, 2022, with minimum monthly reductions of 17 percent and Regional Manager approval for any client wishing to maintain margin.
The settlement states that Ewing continued to use margin without documented approvals.
Margin balances fell by nearly half in January 2022 but then fluctuated without significant further reduction.
Ewing missed the Action Plan deadline; NBF extended it to August 31, 2022, at which point seven margin accounts remained with outstanding balances totalling $3.5m.
Over his employment, Ewing “actively misled NBF,” and the firm later discovered his explanations and representations “were false in certain cases,” finding that he had “deceived NBF repeatedly in the supervision process.”
NBF suspended him on October 21, 2022 and terminated his employment on November 18, 2022. Ewing has not been registered in the industry since.
Twenty‑eight clients were impacted by Ewing’s conduct and received compensation.
NBF reports that it has since restructured its supervision model, enhanced margin oversight, tightened advisor recruitment and monitoring, standardised documentation for action plans and compliance meetings, and developed technological tools to improve visibility on firm‑wide margin usage and suitability‑related risk indicators.
Under the settlement, if NBF fails to comply with any of its terms, Enforcement Staff may bring proceedings under Investment Dealer Rule 8200 based on the facts in the agreement.
