A Framework for Responsive Market Regulation

This chapter submits that a regulator’s raison d’être is not simply to react to market issues but to be proactive and to follow and to understand the changes and the business decisions in the market. Regulators must be able to change and foster a responsive regulatory climate that allows innovation to occur, while ensuring that core principles such as investor protection are preserved and that the impact of any change is monitored. To that end, the chapter highlights the role of the Ontario Securities Commission in the Canadian regulatory landscape, and details how it has addressed the multitude of challenges posed by recent developments in Canadian capital markets, including the growth in dark liquidity and the emergence of high frequency trading.