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Ontario Securities Commission

By | 3 Minutes Read

Working together works: Ontario Securities Commission approves reduced sanction for insider tipper who cooperated with investigation

The OSC recently approved a settlement agreement in which the respondent admitted to providing material non-public information to a third party. The order in Re Hutchinson, which did not include an administrative penalty or disgorgement of profits, was held to be in the public interest given the respondent’s cooperation and other mitigating factors.

By | 8 Minutes Read

The future of securities regulation of distributed ledger technologies

distributed ledger technologiesThe following discussion provides a general description of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) and the current state of the regulatory landscape in Ontario.
To date, the Ontario Securities Commission has not explicitly categorized a blockchain token or coin (which are further discussed below) as an investment contract or other type of security under section 1(1) of the Securities Act (Ontario) (the OSA), but did issue a press release on March 7, 2017, advising market participants that products or other assets that are tracked and traded as part of a distributed ledger may qualify as securities, even if they do not represent shares of a company or similar ownership interests. A business’ specific use of DLT may trigger Ontario securities law requirements, including the need to be registered or to file a prospectus. Any business that is operating or planning to operate a DLT-based venture should consider the nature of … Continue reading “The future of securities regulation of distributed ledger technologies”

By | 2 Minutes Read

Whistleblowers: The AMF will not offer any reward

On February 18, 2016, after a thorough and rigorous analysis which included closely monitoring the rewards-based whistleblower programs offered by the U.S. and Ontario, the Autorité des marchés financiers (the AMF) announced that it does not intend to offer financial rewards to whistleblowers. Instead, the AMF wishes to promote a whistleblower program that builds on existing measures.

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