Kudos to the Ontario Securities Commission for embracing several of the key priorities touted by investor advocates. Now, the OSC will have to prove that it can walk the talk.

The OSC has incorporated some of the investor community’s most cherished goals into its latest statement of priorities. Among other things, the regulator is pledging to: examine whether to impose a fiduciary duty on financial advisors; explore the creation of a mechanism for investor restitution; and harmonize cost disclosure and performance reporting with the rest of the Canadian Securities Administrators members and the self-regulatory organizations. The OSC also promises to hold more town hall meetings and meetings with investors.

A couple of these ideas were also were put forward by the OSC’s new investor advisory panel. The OSC, by adopting some of the IAP’s key recommendations, is demonstrating that the regulator takes the IAP — and what it has to say — seriously. This is tremendous news for investors, who have never had this kind of impact on regulator policy before.

Had the OSC simply disregarded what the IAP had to say, the regulator would have revealed that its recent promises to put investor protection at the heart of its work have been little more than a public relations exercise.

Talk is still exceedingly cheap, and investor advocates have had their hopes raised before. On the issue of restitution, for example, the government and the OSC had pledged to work on a mechanism to improve investor compensation in response to a legislative committee recommendation that was handed down back in 2004. Yet, nothing was done.

The OSC cannot maintain its credibility with investors if it fails to follow through again. While it’s a good sign that investor concerns are being heard, if these words aren’t met with action, investors are no better off than if the OSC had simply ignored them in the first place.

The financial services industry should be prepared to embrace these initiatives too. Nothing the OSC is proposing is outlandish. If adopted, the initiatives may engender some investor confidence — and finally help transform the advisory business into a genuine profession.