Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, with an office in Vancouver, British Columbia, Olympia Trust Company provides a number of valuable services through its Corporate & Shareholder Services division for existing companies, entrepreneurs wishing to list their private company on a stock exchange, and individual investors.
As transfer agent, Olympia Trust maintains the shareholder register for both public and private companies and plays a key role in shareholder communication and corporate events, such as the annual general meeting, dividend payments, corporate reorganizations, and so on. Any communication from the company to its shareholders pertaining to these corporate matters are handled by the transfer agent and funneled out to the investors. In Canada, it is a requirement that any publicly listed company has a third-party transfer agent.
Olympia Trust recognizes that many exploration and mining companies wish to dual list in Canada and the United States. For companies wanting to list their shares on the U.S. OTC Markets venture type of platform, Olympia Trust has put in place a program that benefits the company by expediting the DTC eligibility process, reducing the time frame from months to weeks.
DTC is the largest securities depository in the world and holds over $35 trillion worth of securities on deposit. Without having DTC eligibility, an issuer’s shares cannot be transferred electronically between brokerage firms. The application process for eligibility can be quite complex. Issuers are required to have a DTC participant act as their eligibility sponsor and may be required to submit certain letters of representation, legal opinions and indemnity agreements.
Having seen first-hand the challenges that some issuers have faced when trying to obtain DTC eligibility, Olympia Trust has developed a solution to help streamline this process. Olympia Trust and their U.S. partner will work closely with issuers, their legal counsel and DTC to ensure applications for eligibility are submitted in good order. Olympia Trust is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is an approved transfer agent of DTC, and is a member of the OTC Markets Transfer Agent Verified Shares Program, all of which make Olympia Trust well positioned to assist companies with this process.
Olympia Trust also has a Currency & Global Payments division that provides foreign exchange services. These services benefit companies that are domiciled in Canada that have exploration and/or mining projects in different countries and need to transfer funds globally for payroll, acquisitions, contractors and other money transfer needs. Being a trust company, any funds held with Olympia Trust are just as secure as funds held in a bank, while offering more competitive rates than the major Canadian banks.
Olympia Trust has been a leading provider of quality trustee and administration services for over 20 years, with a strong focus on providing superior service to the Canadian capital markets. For the near future, Olympia Trust is continuing to develop its in-house technology to allow for further growth and expansion of its services.