The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently entered into a cooperation agreement with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) that would allow for information sharing and other cooperation between the two securities regulators with respect to fintech regulation. As part of the agreement, ASIC and the OSC will help innovative fintech businesses enter each other’s markets through a mutual referral arrangement. The overall purpose of this cooperation agreement is to “further the promotion of innovation in their respective markets”.

This development follows a number of recent fintech-focused initiatives from the OSC. OSC Dialogue 2016, which took place on November 2, 2016, focused on fintech regulation and featured discussions led by several leaders in the emerging fintech space, including Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, Randy Cass, Founder and CEO of Nest Wealth, and Joseph Lubin, Founder of ConsenSys and Ethereum. Another measure that received considerable attention was the introduction of OSC Launchpad in October 2016. OSC Launchpad is an initiative of the OSC that facilitates the ability of fintech start-ups to comply with securities regulation. Finally, the OSC recently announced RegHackTO, the first hackathon by a securities regulator intended to enable developers and other experts to propose tech-focused solutions to emerging regulatory challenges.