Ontario plans to make changes to the Financial Services Commission, the province's financial regulator that oversees pension plans and insurance companies, said Charles Sousa, Ontario's finance minister.
In a speech Tuesday to the Canadian Club of Toronto, Mr. Sousa said the mandates of the commission, along with two other financial services agencies — the Financial Services Tribunal and the Deposit Insurance Corp. of Ontario — “were outdated.”
“There was a lack of appropriate governance and accountability” at the agencies, Mr. Sousa said in a speech recorded on the finance ministry's website. “And the regulators were constrained in carrying out their responsibilities.”
Mr. Sousa also said the ministry would introduce legislation to create a new consumer-focused regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority. He did not provide any details of the proposed regulator or changes in the existing agencies, saying they would be provided in the ministry's fiscal update on Nov. 14.
Changes at the agencies were based on recommendations made by an advisory panel appointed by Mr. Sousa earlier this year, he said.
