The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is a

regulatory agency A regulatory agency (regulatory body, regulator) or independent agency (independent regulatory agency) is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous dominion over some area of human activity in a licensing and regulatin ...

which administers and enforces

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The OSC is an Ontario

Crown agency A crown agency was an administrative body of the British Empire, distinct from the Civil Service Commission of Great Britain or the government administration of the national entity in which it operated. These enterprises were overseen from 1833 ...

which reports to the

Ontario legislature The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...

through the

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

. Canada does not have a national securities regulator, and each province and territory regulates its own capital markets; OSC regulates the capital markets in Ontario. Other notable provincial regulators include the

Alberta Securities Commission The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) is a regulatory agency which administers and enforces securities legislation in the Canadian province of Alberta. ThAlberta Securities Act RSA 2000 a revision of the original Act that came into effect on J ...

, the

Autorité des marchés financiers (Québec) Autorité des marchés financiers may refer to: *Autorité des marchés financiers (France) Autorité des marchés financiers may refer to: * Autorité des marchés financiers (France) *Autorité des marchés financiers (Québec) Autorité des march ...

, and the

British Columbia Securities Commission The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) is a regulation, regulatory agency which administers and enforces security (finance), securities legislation in the Canadian province of British Columbia. See also * Canadian securities regulation ...

. OSC Mandate: * Protect

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

s from unfair, improper and

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

ulent practices * Foster fair and efficient

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

markets * Maintain

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

and

confidence Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from a Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having ...

in the integrity of those markets The OSC administers the Ontario Securities Act and the Commodity Futures Act and with about 500 employees, is the largest securities regulator in Canada and has the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in t ...

within its jurisdiction.

References

External links

Ontario Securities Commission website

''SEDAR- Provides access to public fillings of Canadian Securities Issuers''
{{ONGovDept Crown corporations of Ontario Financial regulatory authorities of Canada Ontario government departments and agencies Ontario government tribunals Securities and exchange commissions Government agencies established in 1932 1932 establishments in Ontario