Reducing Regulatory Burden - Highlights From The OSC's Third And Final Roundtable

As discussed in our recent posting, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has identified regulatory burden reduction as one of its key priorities for the coming year. The Ontario government is actively encouraging these initiatives. The OSC recently established a Burden Reduction Task Force and announced a series of related roundtable discussions for stakeholders.

The third and final roundtable of the series was held May 27 on topics related to trading, marketplaces, issuer requirements and derivatives.

Marketplace participants attending the roundtable made suggestions for change that include:

1. Ontario should consider joining the Passport System, a regulatory system that has been adopted by all Canadian provinces and territories except Ontario. This would eliminate duplication of regulatory review efforts in connection with various filings by market participants whose principal regulator is not the OSC but who wish to access the Ontario capital markets.