The Ontario Securities Commission today released its strategic plan for 2012-2015. Entitled The OSC: A 21st Century Securities Regulator, the plan is intended to guide the Commission as it seeks "to remain an effective, efficient, vigilant and modern organization."
Specifically, the plan sets out six key strategies that the OSC will pursue over the next few years, namely: (i) expanding the OSC's research and analytic capability to be able to respond to and keep pace with market developments and investor concerns and to support policy-making by creating a dedicated Research and Analysis Group; (ii) engaging investors more effectively by creating an Office of the Investor; (iii) establishing an internal Policy Coordination Committee to improve policy coordination and priority-setting; (iv) aligning all operations and programs with defined OSC goals and priorities and developing and reporting on key performance indicators; (v) establishing an Emerging Risk Committee to develop and implement a risk framework; and (vi) delivering excellence in the execution of operations by enhancing practices and processes.
The plan's release follows a review undertaken in 2011 of the OSC's priorities, objectives and outcomes, which included consulting with external stakeholders and engaging a consulting firm to benchmark the OSC against best practices at other regulatory agencies such as the U.S. SEC. Moving forward, the OSC intends to set out which initiatives will be address in the next fiscal year in its 2012-13 Statement of Priorities. The OSC also states that it will report on the progress of its plan on an annual basis.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
