The group working on a proposed national securities regulator has published a report outlining the results of a roundtable it held on the creation of an investor advisory committee, but the report doesn’t provide any concrete conclusions on the subject.

The Canadian Securities Transition Office held a roundtable with a number of people, including investor advocates, former regulators, lawyers and industry players, back in January to discuss the creation of an independent investor panel as part of the new regulator.

Such a body is being touted as a way to provide a stronger investor voice in the development of regulatory policy. The CSTO says it supports this notion, and intends to develop a more specific proposal for an investor advisory committee as part of its implementation planning.

“For that proposal, we need to make decisions on how to structure the panel’s mandate, composition and funding,” the report says; and, it began its discussion of those issues with the roundtable.

The report, which was published Friday, summarizes the views that were provided to the CSTO on these various elements of a proposed investor committee, but doesn’t reach any conclusions on issues of structure, mandate, or funding.

According to the report, that common themes that emerged from the discussion include:

• the effort should recognize the fact that investors are a very diverse group;

• the mandate of an advisory committee should be clear; and

• the process of establishing the body, and its’ operation, must be highly transparent.

The CSTO pledges to continue to engage in consultation on the issue, and says that this input “will shape and support the recommendations that we ultimately provide to the Minister of Finance”.

In the meantime, since the CSTO held its roundtable, the Ontario Securities Commission has moved ahead to create an investor advisory committee of its own.

IE