More than 100 U.S. firms are currently squirming under the fixed gaze of regulators intent on examining their executive stock option grants. Canadian firms may soon be facing the same issues, if a recent study is any indication. Much like the U.S. stock option embroglio, the Canadian situation threatens to be broken open not by a Spitzer-esq. regulatory tough-guy, but by a wake-up call from academia:

Canada has avoided the options-backdating scandal in the United States, but a forthcoming academic study suggests backdating could be prevalent north of the 49th parallel. The study, by economics professors at the University of Manitoba, examined executive stock options granted by 66 of Canada's biggest publicly traded companies from June 2003 to October 2006. It found trading patterns that may be consistent with backdating and also that many stock-option grants aren't being reported as quickly as securities laws require. "While it is impossible to determine unequivocally that companies are engaging in backdating ... the aggregate evidence certainly supports such a story," the study concluded.

More here.

-- MDT