Email Blast – Get ready for the 2024 Risk Assessment Questionnaire

We are writing to provide you with advance notice that on May 8, 2024, you will receive a risk assessment questionnaire (2024 RAQ) from staff of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). You must complete and submit the RAQ online by June 19, 2024.

We strongly encourage you to start planning and allocating resources to this initiative. Questions in the 2024 RAQ will be substantially similar to those in the 2022 risk assessment questionnaire (2022 RAQ); however, we will be using a new platform for the RAQ. We have included below some important information that you need to review before starting your preparations. Please refer to “Summary of key information to the 2024 RAQ”.

We ask that you review the email address of the firm’s Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) and Ultimate Designated Person (UDP) on the National Registration Database (NRD) to ensure that they are up-to-date and accurate as these email addresses will be used to create separate accounts to access the 2024 RAQ. If there are changes to the contact information of the CCO and UDP, please update NRD by February 28, 2024 so that access to your firm’s RAQ will not be delayed.

The OSC has a mandate to (i) protect investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, (ii) foster fair, efficient and competitive capital markets and confidence in capital markets, (iii) foster capital formation, and (iv) contribute to the stability of the financial system and reduce systemic risk. The RAQ is used to gather information about the business operations, practices and procedures of firms registered with the OSC. The information collected is used to support our regulatory oversight activities in carrying out the OSC’s mandate. In addition, we may share this RAQ data with other internal branches within the OSC and other provincial securities regulators to further the OSC’s mandate.

Firms registered as Investment Fund Managers in Ontario recently received the OSC’s Investment Fund Survey (the Survey), which has a deadline to complete of April 30, 2024.  We acknowledge and appreciate the resources and time that must be devoted to completing both the Survey and the 2024 RAQ. Providing you with this advance notice should help you plan and allocate compliance resources to both the Survey and the 2024 RAQ, which will be issued on May 8, 2024.

A copy of the 2022 RAQ can be found here.

The 2024 RAQ will be asking for information for the two-year period ended December 31, 2023.

If you do not receive an email on May 8, 2024, please contact us as soon as possible at [email protected]

To assist you in completing the RAQ, we will be providing a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs), a User Guide, a Help Page for each section of the RAQ, and the contact information of dedicated staff members to whom you can direct your questions. We will also be offering a webinar Registrant Outreach session on this topic, which will be scheduled in May 2024. To register, please visit the outreach webpage on the OSC website.

Summary of key information to the 2024 RAQ

1) Use of new platform and interface for the RAQ

Beginning with the 2024 RAQ, and going forward, you will be required to submit the RAQ through the OSC’s Electronic Filing Portal (OSC Portal). The OSC Portal is designed to allow market participants to submit their online forms and filings via a secure platform in an efficient and secure manner. Highlights of new features include the following:

  • Seamless secure sign-in process with two-factor authentication.
  • Self-service delegation function to designate up to three individuals with the capability to complete the RAQ and manage delegates’ access to the RAQ.
  • Ability to make amendments to submitted RAQ questionnaires.
  • New functionality to help navigate through the RAQ, including progress bar, help icons, and embedded question logic.

Additionally, there are no substantial changes from the 2022 RAQ in terms of the questions asked in each section. Changes have been made to improve readability or are part of the new software functionality, such as the removal of Excel-based templates.

2) Pre-populating certain questions with responses from the 2022 RAQ

We will continue to pre-populate certain fields in the 2024 RAQ if your firm completed the 2022 RAQ. Those questions that we anticipate having few or no year over year changes will be pre-populated.

You must review the pre-populated responses and where necessary make changes when the answers no longer accurately describe the firm’s current situation or practices.

Specific to the questions that asks you to provide details of your referral arrangements or finders’ fees entries, you may be required to re-input all referral arrangements into the questionnaire for the 2024 RAQ. In future, this information will also be pre-populated.

We will not pre-populate fields that request financial information (e.g., referral fees paid, revenues, assets under management, capital raised, etc.) or numeric data (e.g., number of clients, number of complaints, performance returns, etc.) since that information changes year over year.

3) UDP certification

Your UDP is required to certify in each section of the RAQ that they have reviewed all of the responses, including the pre-populated information. Please make sure that sufficient time is scheduled for your UDP to complete the certification. As the UDP has their own account in our system, they will be able to complete this certification process through their account. If the UDP and CCO are the same person, then their firm will only have one account and that account can be used to complete the UDP certification.

Assistance

For any questions feedback or concerns regarding:

  • the OSC Electronic Filing Portal, please contact the OSC's Inquiries and Contact Center at 1-877-785-1555 or 416-593-8314 on any business day between 8:30 am to 5:00 pm (Eastern).
  • the RAQ, please email us at [email protected].