Confidential monthly peer benchmarking built specifically for Canadian independent dealers, and included with FID/FCI membership. No comparable service exists for our channel; the commercial analogues price out every firm below enterprise scale.
1. Members log in to the FID portal as usual
2. Click "Barometer Survey", auto-authenticated via secure token
3. Answer about a dozen short questions, the core set, plus Form 1 figures they already file
4. Instantly access the anonymized industry dashboard
That is the whole monthly ask, and every figure in it is one you already file. A short firm profile is answered the first time and refreshed once a year; brief quarterly and annual supplements sit alongside it. Investment Dealers answer a couple more than Mutual Fund Dealers, because their rulebook reports a couple more.
Firm-level figures are never displayed. Peer-group breakdowns only render once at least five firms have submitted, so no member can be identified from the data.
Channel AUA & rep trends, month-over-month movement across independent dealers
Business sentiment, where peers see the market heading
Technology spend, what comparable firms actually spend, per rep and per account
Compliance burden, spend per rep, per account, and as a share of revenue
Peer cohorts, large / mid / small, so comparisons are meaningful
The same data feeds Monday Musings commentary and the quarterly member PDF, so the numbers surface where members already read.
Every question on the survey exists because it produces a number you cannot get anywhere else. Answer it once a month and the dashboard gives you your own position against firms your size, not an industry average dominated by the banks.
Compliance cost as a share of revenue
The single number that tells you whether your compliance burden is proportionate or whether you are carrying more than your peers. It needs a revenue denominator, which is why the survey now asks for one.
Your payout ratio against your peer group
The benchmark every dealer asks for and no one publishes. Asked as a ratio, never as two dollar figures, and reported only as a peer median.
What independents pay away
Commissions and fees paid to carrying brokers, fund companies and platforms, the cost of not being vertically integrated, measured across the whole channel rather than argued from anecdote.
Capital efficiency
Risk adjusted capital as a multiple of the margin required against it, how much of your capital is immobilised rather than funding the business, and how thin the cushion runs at firms your size.
Staffing and technology ratios
Reps per compliance seat, compliance spend per compliance seat, technology spend per rep, operations staff per rep. The numbers you need before you hire, and the ones you get asked for at budget time.
An advocacy file with your evidence in it
The aggregate is what FID puts in front of CIRO and the CSA. A proportionality argument made with the channel's own figures lands differently than one made without them.
Nothing is shown at firm level, ever. A peer breakdown only renders once at least five firms in that cohort have submitted, so the benchmark you want is the one your participation creates.
Built for this channel
Mainstream benchmarking services are designed around banks and wirehouses. Independent dealers sit outside their taxonomies, so when the reports arrive, we're a footnote, if we appear at all.
Priced for every member
Commercial peer-benchmarking subscriptions start in the five figures per year and climb from there. The Barometer is included in FID/FCI membership, so a twelve-rep firm gets the same view as the largest member.
Run by the industry body
Data stays in Canada, inside Federation-controlled infrastructure. Dashboards only return anonymized aggregates, and no third-party vendor ever sees firm-level responses.
Built by the channel, for the channel, the Barometer will be the foundation for every future piece of member intelligence the Federation publishes, shaped entirely by the firms it serves.