The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
has entered
into a FinTech Cooperation
Agreement with Canadian regulators. This agreement expands the existing
framework for information sharing and also allows the referral of innovative FinTech
businesses to and from Canada.
This Cooperation Agreement has been signed with
participating Canadian provincial securities regulators: Autorité des marchés
financiers (Québec), the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Alberta
Securities Commission, the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of
Saskatchewan, the Manitoba Securities Commission, the Financial and Consumer
Services Commission (New Brunswick) and the Nova Scotia Securities Commission.
ASIC entered
in to a Cooperation Agreement with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) on 2
November 2016. This agreement remains in effect.
In Canada, each of the 10 provinces and three territories
are responsible for securities regulation. Securities regulators from each
province joined forces to form the Canadian Securities Administrators
(CSA). The CSA, the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces
and territories, co-ordinates and harmonises regulation for the Canadian
capital markets.
The CSA is actively looking to foster innovation in Canada’s
capital markets and has commenced a number of initiatives. In February 2017,
the CSA launched its 'CSA Regulatory Sandbox'. This initiative looks to support
fintech businesses seeking to offer innovative products, services and
applications in Canada. Similar to ASIC’s Regulatory Sandbox relief, the CSA
Regulatory Sandbox allows firms to obtain exemptive relief from securities laws
requirements.
The participating jurisdictions in the CSA engage closely
with foreign regulators to both share and learn from experiences with
initiatives such as the ASIC Innovation Hub and the Regulatory
Sandbox.
ASIC Commissioner John Price commented on the new Agreement,
“ASIC’s relationship with the OSC has been mutually beneficial. It makes sense
to expand our links to other Canadian provincial regulators where we are seeing
similar fintech innovation.”
Louis Morisset, Chair of the CSA, SA and CEO of the Autorité
des marchés financiers (Québec) said, “These agreements mark new positive steps
for the CSA, which already works with the Sandbox to help innovative businesses
seeking to operate across Canada.”
ASIC collaborates closely with other regulators to
understand developments, and to help entrepreneurs expand their target markets
into other jurisdictions.
To date, ASIC has entered into FinTech referral and
information-sharing agreements with the Monetary
Authority of Singapore; the United
Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority; Ontario
Securities Commission; Hong
Kong Securities and Futures Commission; the Japan
Financial Services Agency; Malaysia
Securities Commission; Abu
Dhabi Global Market Financial Services Regulatory Authority and the Financial
Market Supervisory Authority, Switzerland. Recently, ASIC and the Financial
Markets Authority (FMA)
of New Zealand re-affirmed their
commitment to collaboration and cooperation on the expanding opportunities in
FinTech and innovation.
In addition, information-sharing agreements have been
entered with the Capital
Markets Authority, Kenya, Otoritas
Jasa Keuangan (Financial Services Authority of Indonesia), Indonesia and the
China
Securities Regulatory Commission.