The head of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) Louis Morisset, is taking over as the head of the national council of securities regulators, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA).
Morisset is replacing Bill Rice, outgoing head of the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC), who has led the CSA since 2011. Rice’s current term as chairman and CEO of the ASC is slated to end on July 15.
Morisset was appointed at the CSA’s latest meeting in Toronto, on March 26-27, and will serve a two-year term, ending Mar. 31, 2017.
“It is an honour to have been appointed by my colleagues to lead the CSA in these challenging times. The CSA plays a fundamental role in the Canadian capital markets and I am committed to diligently pursue our work of coordinating and harmonizing securities regulation across Canada,” commented Morisset, in a statement. “Efficiency of Canadian capital markets, effective law enforcement and confidence of Canadian investors will continue to be the driving force of our organization, which is more than ever essential in the current context.”
At the same time, the CSA appointed the chairman of the Manitoba Securities Commission (MSC), Don Murray, as vice chairman of the CSA, for a two-year term. “We will continue to apply the CSA’s strategic principles and pursue our efforts toward the implementation of a more harmonized and streamlined securities regime in Canada,” noted Murray.
Ontario Securities Commission chariman Howard Wetston was given another two-year term as chairman of the CSA’s Policy Coordination Committee.
The latest round of CSA appointments comes amid an ongoing federal effort to create a cooperative national securities regulator, which so far involves Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and PEI. The governments of Alberta, Québec, and Manitoba have traditionally been opposed to that idea, and have instead favoured a beefed up CSA that preserves the long-standing provincial jurisdiction over securities regulation.