OSC publishes its 2023-2024 Statement of Priorities

TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) today published its 2023-2024 Statement of Priorities (SOP), which sets out the four strategic goals the OSC intends to focus on this fiscal year. The final SOP is included in the OSC’s Business Plan for fiscal years ending 2024-2026, also published today.

“As we publish our first Statement of Priorities under our new organizational and governance structure changes, we continue to adapt and respond to innovation and evolving markets with effective regulation, foster capital formation and competition, as well as deliver on our strong investor protection mandate,” said OSC Chief Executive Officer Grant Vingoe. “I am confident in OSC staff’s ability to adapt to the everchanging evolution of Ontario’s capital markets, and the need to continue to strengthen trust in those markets.”

The OSC’s 2023-2024 SoP sets out four strategic goals the OSC intends to focus on, above and beyond core regulatory operations: Building Trust and Fairness in Ontario’s Capital Markets, Strengthening Investor Safeguards, Adapting Regulation to Align with Innovation and Evolving Markets, and Enabling the Organization to Deliver Effective Regulation. As business needs evolve, the OSC may take on additional priorities or reprioritize initiatives during the year in response to emerging issues and changing market conditions.

As part of the OSC’s commitment to transparency and accountability, the OSC solicited stakeholder feedback on the priorities outlined in its 2023-2024 Statement of Priorities – Draft for Comment released on November 22, 2022. The comments were generally supportive of the overall direction of the OSC goals and proposed priorities.

The final SoP was updated to provide clarifications for certain items raised by commenters, as well as to reflect the finalization of the OSC’s business planning process and to provide updates to initiatives since publication of the draft SoP.

The OSC would like to thank stakeholders for their time and effort in providing comments. The 20 comment letters responding to the Statement of Priorities, along with the OSC’s response, can be viewed on the website.

The final Statement of Priorities for Financial Year ending on March 31, 2024 can be found within the Business Plan for the Fiscal Years Ending 2024-2026, available on the OSC’s website.

The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair, efficient and competitive capital markets and confidence in the capital markets, to foster capital formation, and to contribute to the stability of the financial system and the reduction of systemic risk. Investors are urged to check the registration of any persons or company offering an investment opportunity and to review the OSC investor materials available at https://www.osc.ca.

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