Ontario Hub Helps FinTechs Navigate Regulatory Waters

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is supporting a new initiative aimed at helping to guide FinTech startups through the complexities of the regulatory framework and provide them with an opportunity to voice how rules should be adapted to cover an evolving financial landscape.

Maureen Jensen, chair of the OSC, recently said that it’s clear many new entrants to the financial services space have services and platforms that don’t fit neatly within the existing rules, Finextra reported on Monday (Oct. 17).

“We recognize that we have to keep pace with the changes brought on by FinTech and not prevent promising business models from coming to market,” Jensen explained.

According to Finextra, OSC has already helped more than 40 firms, spanning areas such as P2P lending and crowdfunding, go through the registration process.

Jensen explained that many just “don’t know what they don’t know” when it comes to operating in an industry that is heavily regulated. This, she explained, can have huge impacts as they move to launch their business models.

OSC recently started a FinTech hub called LaunchPad to help address this need.

The program will have a dedicated team tasked with working directly with FinTechs to help them tackle regulatory problems.

Jensen said the OSC LaunchPad “will work to tailor regulation and oversight to their unique business models, as long as investor protections are in place.”