Modernizing regulation

Modernizing Regulation is a new, holistic program at the OSC that organizes existing and future efforts to continuously improve and introduce innovative regulation. The Innovation Office oversees this program across the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) by researching, proposing, testing, and implementing systematic methods to reduce regulatory barriers, fees, anti-competitive behaviour, and response times. Modernization makes regulation, and the OSC itself, more efficient today and better suited to what’s next in Ontario’s capital markets.

We strive to make the OSC more agile, innovative, and efficient by promoting new leading practices and technology. To modernize and reduce burden, we are planning to:

• Propose and implement amendments to OSC policies to support innovation and foster economic growth
• Evaluate the effectiveness of improvements by validating internal and external data and conducting post-implementation reviews of initiatives
• Collaborate with other regulators in Canada and internationally to research, adopt, and advance leading practices
• Conduct and communicate research into Ontario’s innovation ecosystem and capital markets

Burden reduction is a subset of modernizing regulation focused on reducing regulatory burden in our capital markets and making it easier to do business in Ontario. This includes considering whether existing rules and guidance require modification or have outlived their usefulness.

We oversee the ongoing burden reduction efforts:

• Reducing Regulatory Burden in Ontario Capital Markets: Report – 2019
• Reducing Regulatory Burden – Decisions and Recommendations: Status Update May 2020

Regulatory technology (RegTech) leverages new technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help regulated businesses comply more efficiently or effectively with securities laws. Supervisory Technology (SupTech) applies similar techniques to innovative solutions for regulators like the OSC.

The Innovation Office is interested in how RegTech and SupTech can benefit capital market participants in Ontario and the OSC internally. We’re working now on our approach to enable and accelerate the adoption of promising solutions starting in fall 2021.

We collaborate with other regulators internationally to identify leading practices and promote adoption of both RegTech and SupTech solutions through the GFIN RegTech Special Unit & GFIN SupTech Special Unit: GFIN RegTech & SupTech Workstream Update February 2021.

To target the right improvements and measure their effective implementation, we work to gather feedback in a way that ensures fairness to all our stakeholders. We seek structured feedback through surveys, Request for Comment (RFC) processes, and now OSC IdeaHub – a new public participation platform for Ontario capital markets participants to share ideas that contribute to the OSC’s efforts to foster innovation and economic growth while meeting the evolving needs of those who live, work, and invest in Ontario.

We leverage our experience helping eligible businesses in the LaunchPad support program to identify opportunities to ease compliance with securities laws in Ontario.

For more information, see who we work with or connect with us.