On November 18, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) published OSC Notice 11-794 Statement of Priorities seeking comment on its draft 2022-2023 Statement of Priorities (SoP) to inform its business planning for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2023. The OSC has set out the following four strategic goals, and it has set out the priority initiatives it will pursue in support of those goals, for the fiscal year.
The first goal, promoting confidence in Ontario’s capital markets, will be supported by further work to sustain strong core regulatory operations, support implementation of the mutual fund embedded commission rules banning the use of deferred sales charges and trailing commissions where no suitability determination is required, improve the retail investor experience and protection (including the continued implementation of the OSC seniors’ strategy), and strengthen dispute resolution services for investors. In addition, the OSC’s work will include continued efforts to implement a new single enhanced self-regulatory organization and consolidate the current two investor protection funds independent from the new SRO, develop a rule setting out climate change-related disclosures for reporting issuers, strengthen oversight of crypto asset trading platforms and develop total cost reporting disclosure for mutual fund investors and segregated fund holders.
Reflecting the new OSC mandate to promote competition and foster capital formation, the second goal is to modernize the regulatory environment to capture priorities that continue to modernize regulatory oversight practices. This goal will be supported by implementing an enhanced framework and continuing work on streamlining periodic disclosure requirements for reporting issuers and work to modernize delivery options of regulatory and continuous disclosure filings for issuers.
Under the goal of facilitating financial innovation, the OSC will continue to evolve the regulatory environment in line with Ontario’s changing capital markets and investor needs. Through the Innovation Office, the OSC seeks to engage and support novel businesses, support and enable the use of technology and open data in our capital markets, foster new methods of engagement with the innovation community and expand the OSC TestLab.
The fourth goal, strengthening the organizational foundation of the OSC, involves investing in its people, technology and information systems. It continues to seek to redevelop CSA national systems (including working toward replacing the CSA national systems with SEDAR+), digital transformation and data and analytics enablement. In addition, the goal will be supported by fostering inclusion, equity and diversity as well as implementing a hybrid work pilot.
The OSC has removed reducing regulatory burden as a specific goal within this year’s SoP on the basis that it is embedding a culture of burden reduction across the organization and many of its activities have become integrated into its core operational work.
Written comments on the draft SoP are due by December 20, 2021. Any necessary adjustments to the SoP will be included prior to finalization and publication. If you have any questions or wish to comment on the draft SoP, please let us know.
November 30, 2021