Joe Oliver, president and CEO of the Investment Dealers Association, vigorously defended the IDA’s role as both a regulator and a trade association at the annual conference in La Malbaie Quebec this morning.

The IDA has been on the hot seat lately over its adequacy as a regulator, after a couple of critical reports from provincial securities commissions have come to light. It has also faced a public fire storm over regulatory lapses at member firms.

Oliver opened his address with a committed defense to the notion of self-regulation. “The investing public benefits from self-regulation because it allows the industry to apply its expertise in rapidly evolving policy areas.” He also cited the strengths of self-regulation as: by-laws which can be more flexible and responsive to market developments, the cost is borne by the industry, and it also promotes industry buy-in.

“Ultimately, regulation depends on compliance. Ensuring broad compliance depends on a prevailing sense that regulators are fair and balanced, taking into account market realities. In our society, laws and regulations are followed not just because they are etched in stone. They are followed because they are etched in fairness, carved in practical reality, and rooted in real need,” said Oliver.

He admitted that there is an inherent conflict in self-regulation and advocacy, but he said it is not debilitating. “As a practical matter, despite the persistent rhetoric to the contrary, thee is no meaningful incremental conflict flowing from our dual mandate, being a SRO and an industry association. These two trains can and do travel on parallel tracks.” He said its trade association work is directed at broad economic issues, and not regulatory matters. Oliver stressed that the real conflict is in self-regulation, but that similar conflicts exist everywhere. The challenge is to manage those conflicts with integrity.

He noted that over the past three years, the IDA has more than doubled its enforcement resources, and yesterday it formally amended its by-laws to introduce mandatory reporting of all investor complaints receive by firms, back to the IDA.

He also defended the regulator’s record, but admitted he has some work to do. “Can it be better? Yes. We’re committed to making it better, to remain viable it must do what markets themselves are doing–adapt to changes in technology, global competition and investor protection.”