The Ontario Securities Commission welcomes the report of the Regulatory Burden Task Force (RBTF) and is committed to responding to the report’s recommendations, OSC Chairman David Brown said today.

The OSC had mandated the RBTF in October 2001 to hold informal consultations on how the OSC could reduce regulatory burdens for market participants, without requiring legislative changes or involving regulators in other jurisdictions.

“We commissioned the report because we are committed to continually improving the service we provide to market participants,” Brown said in a news release, noting that independent Customer Satisfaction surveys of market participants have given the OSC high marks for customer service.

The latest survey concluded, “The OSC improves its stakeholder satisfaction grade of “B to B plus” in 2000 to an “A minus” in 2001, and continues to record notably low negative scores compared to other regulatory bodies.”

Another survey is planned for 2004 and the results will be made public.

Senior OSC staff has established a process to review the RBTF recommendations and respond by the end of the current fiscal year, Brown said. In particular, he noted that the OSC is giving priority to acting on recommendations that are within the mandate of the RBTF and that will help improve customer service by removing burdens and costs.

“Keeping in mind that the interviews were completed in September 2002, we have already had time to act on some of the comments received by the Task Force,” said Brown. “In fact, we have addressed over 20% of the comments to date and are well on our way to addressing a further 25%. A good majority of the remaining recommendations need further study before we can decide how, or if, we will implement them.”

Recommendations that have already been acted on include:

  • The establishment of a new Investment Funds Branch and the recruitment of a senior industry member to act as the director for the new branch;
  • The launching of a centralized repository for cease trade orders by Market Regulation Services Inc. in collaboration with provincial securities commissions and the dealer community; and
  • The provision of insider reporting exemptions for “nominal vice-presidents” to ensure that insider reporting requirements capture only those employees with access to material information.

Recommendations identified for further study include:

  • Investigating the effectiveness of the U.S. insider trading detection rule described in the report;
  • Encouraging the Investment Dealers Association to work with its members to speed up account transfers;
  • Monitor the whistle-blower protection legislation being developed by the federal government, and similar legislation in other jurisdictions such as the U.K.; and
  • Establishing an ongoing method for market participants to communicate their concerns or suggestions to the OSC on an anonymous basis.

“As a measure of our accountability, we will report in our 2004 Annual Report on the measured approach we have taken to implement RBTF recommendations,” Brown said.

A number of other recommendations in the report would require legislation or are outside the mandate of the OSC, Brown added.