Pulse on the Market

Canadian capital markets closed 2025 with steady fixed-income activity, selective strength across private capital, and a stabilizing public-equity environment. Public-market issuance softened early in the quarter but firmed through December as volatility moderated and issuers positioned for 2026.¹

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Corporate bond markets remained a highlight, supported by healthy investor demand and modestly tightening credit spreads throughout the quarter. Financial and corporate issuers continued to access the market at scale, maintaining the strong momentum seen earlier in the year.²

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Structured-finance activity was stable, led by covered-bond issuance, although transparency around structured-note volumes remained limited given inconsistent public reporting.³

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Private equity and venture capital activity continued to anchor total capital deployment. Deal flow held relatively steady, with investors showing ongoing but disciplined appetite amid macro uncertainty.⁴

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Overall, Q4 reflected a resilient year-end environment: steady issuance, active private markets, and cautious optimism across public equities heading into 2026.

New issue participation accelerated meaningfully, with NIAD clients recording a 103.52% quarteroverquarter increase, aligning with the broader pickup in yearend issuance.

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Pulse at NIAD

At NIAD, we are constantly improving our product. Here are the latest news and improvements we shipped in the September 2025 release. These enhancements are designed to provide you with greater control, visibility, and efficiency in managing offerings.

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‍NEWS – Beth Shaw

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‍NIAD has engaged industry veteran Beth Shaw to support our upcoming Dealer Linking module, lead product enhancements, and drive business growth. Beth’s wealth of knowledge and capital markets experience will benefit NIAD and our Clients, and you can expect to see her impact in upcoming releases and improved product experiences.

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‍KEY ENHANCEMENTS

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• Subscription Agreement Module — Send Multiple Documents for Client Signature

Advisors can now send multiple waiver documents to a client in a single workflow, reducing back-and-forth and speeding up the signature process.

• Subscription Agreement Module — Cancel and Resend Agreements

Advisors can cancel a Subscription Agreement sent to the wrong address and easily resend agreements when clients report they didn’t receive them, reducing errors and improving turnaround.‍

• Inactive Accounts — Institutional, President’s List, and Dealer Orders

We extended the improved ordering workflow previously available for Retail accounts to Institutional, President’s List, and Dealer accounts. This increases visibility into inactive-account orders and prevents contracting of invalid requests.‍

• Settlements — Simplified Handling for $0.00 Issues‍

Setting up Settlements and Contracting for issues priced at $0.00 is now simpler. We removed restrictive workarounds and now allow $0.00 for Issue and Drawdown prices, streamlining the processing of zero-dollar instruments.‍

• ‍Place Orders — Better Trade-Restriction Visibility‍

When expressing client interest on the Place Order > Client Search screen, Advisors can now see if an account is restricted for trading, helping avoid blocked orders up front.‍

• ‍Security Types — New and Updated Types for Charity Flow-Through‍

We added and updated security types to support Charity Flow-Through issues, including:

• Structured Flow-Through Units (BUY)
• Structured Flow-Through Units (SELL) - these will now process and contract client orders as
  SELL trades where appropriate.

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Pulse Tips

Here are practical tips to help users get more done inside the NIAD application. Each tip explains what to do, why it helps, and the exact place to click so your workflow stays fast and accurate.

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Change Issues

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• What it does: Quickly switch between issuer order books without navigating away from the current page.
• How to use it: In the Current Issue box, click the Issuer name to open a dropdown of available issues. Select the issue you want, and the order book for that issuer appears instantly.Why it helps:
  Saves time by keeping you in context; eliminates extra page loads and preserves any other
  onscreen data you’re referencing.

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Reports - Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (LIFE)

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• What it does: Produces a comprehensive export of fields relevant to Listed Issuer Financing
  Exemption filings.
• How to use it: Run the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption report when working on LIFE offerings
  to extract all known fields required for National Instrument NI45106F1.
• Why it helps: Cuts manual data collection and reduces transcription errors, so your filing
  process is faster and more auditable.

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Data Source References

1. TSX & TSX-V Financing Bulletins and new issue summaries (Oct–Dec 2025).
2. Bloomberg & Refinitiv corporate bond issuance data; Bank of Canada credit-spread indices
3. OSFI Covered Bond Reporting, issuer disclosures, and CSA structured-finance filings.
4. PitchBook and CB Insights – Canada Private Equity & Venture Capital Q4 2025 reports.

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