diverse group of advisors
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The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) are addressing the lack of organized investor representation in their policy work by establishing their own independent Investor Advisory Panel (IAP).

The umbrella group of provincial regulators issued a request for comment on Thursday on the proposed design of its new IAP, which will provide it with input from the retail investor perspective.

The deadline for feedback is Feb. 1, and the CSA seeks to establish the group in the spring.

“The CSA currently receives comments from investors notably through a notice and comment process and through the work of other panels or committees established in Canada, but we think retail investors’ views can be represented in a more consistent and comprehensive manner through the mechanism of a pan-Canadian panel,” the CSA said in a notice outlining its proposal.

“As regulators, we hope to have more meaningful insight into retail investor concerns about rules and policies through the panel’s representation of a greater sample of the retail investor population,” it added.

Similarly as the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), the CSA proposes to create an IAP that would compensate participants for their involvement. The proposed new IAP will also receive administrative support from the CSA Secretariat, and it will have funding for its own research and outreach.

Members of the IAP will be appointed to three-year terms, with the appointments being made by a committee composed of executives from various CSA members. One member from the OSC’s IAP will be appointed to the CSA panel too.

“We listened to retail investor advocates who expressed a need for more structured and sustained engagement with retail investors to assist in policy-making,” said Louis Morisset, chair of the CSA and president and CEO of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), in a release.

“This new panel will serve as advisors to the CSA. We expect its input will provide us with meaningful insight into retail investors’ concerns to aid us in formulating rules that enhance investor protection.”