Only a single national securities regulator can deal with risks that have emerged in a post financial meltdown world, an International Monetary Fund representative argued Monday.

Thomas Hockin says a national body to replace Canada’s current patchwork system of provincial regulators would have access to all information necessary to act quickly and in the interests of the entire country in response to a financial shock.

In today’s globalized markets, systemic risks are becoming a greater concern for securities regulators, he said, adding that Canada’s current system of 13 disparate provincial and territorial regulators doesn’t fit with that reality.

“We are now in a brand new system that didn’t exist three years ago,” said Hockin, who also chaired a 2009 panel that recommended a national securities regulator.

“The current Canadian system has not been able to address market developments properly,” said Hockin, currently IMF executive director representing Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean.

As it now stands, Canada doesn’t have a single authority that could quickly shut down the market or ban trading of a risky product, Hockin said during a panel discussion in Toronto’s financial district on whether a single regulator is necessary.

The panel, sponsored by the Institute for Public Policy, included two advocates and two critics of the proposed national regulator.

Pierre Lortie of the institute argued that a national regulator is not necessary, nor would it accurately reflect the various interests that are better represented by individual provincial regulators.

“By its very nature, the national regulator cannot enter a regime of acceptance to accommodate local and regional differences (or) promote economic development initiatives which are inherent to our current structure,” he said.

He argued that a single regulator would harm small Canadian venture companies that benefit from the ability to raise money on public markets regulated at a more intimate level.

A single regulator also would not cultivate or strengthen smaller regional exchanges across the country that are so important to small companies, he added.

The federal government has referred its proposed legislation to create a national regulator to the Supreme Court of Canada, which held two days of hearings in April and is expected to rule on the case later this year.

The legal issue is whether trading in securities is a matter of contractual, property and civil rights, or can be considered to come under the federal power to regulate matters of trade and commerce.

Hockin told the lunchtime crowd that both the IMF and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development believe that the integrity of Canada’s financial system would be better served by a single national regulator.

“In my view the federal government should not back down, the stakes are far too high.”

A total of six provinces, led by Alberta and Quebec, are seeking to block the proposed legislation, which would allow each province and territory to voluntarily opt into a federal regulatory scheme.

Ontario has been the only province vocally supportive of the plan.

Under the current structure, the 10 provincial and three territorial regulators co-operate through a passport system in which regulatory approvals in one province are recognized by others.

Canada is the only country in the G20 that does not have a national securities regulator.