OSC publishes staff notice regarding the transparency of stock exchange and ATS operations
As described in our earlier post, on October 9, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) introduced a new process for reviewing changes to certain operations of exchanges and ATSs. According to the notice, OSC Staff believe that proposals to operational changes to exchanges and ATSs should be subject to an appropriate degree of transparency. Thus, the OSC intends to apply new publication requirements in the case of proposed changes to order types or features/characteristics of orders, procedures regarding order entry, display and execution, and changes to procedures relating to special facilities or marketplace sessions. The OSC may also request that other changes be published if regulatory concerns are raised.
Generally, under the new procedures, exchanges and ATs must file with the OSC and publish a notice in the OSC Bulletin describing, among other things, the proposals, rationale and expected impact of the proposed changes. The OSC will review the proposals and market participants will be afforded 30 days to provide feedback. Absent any regulatory concerns, the proposed changes would become effective 45 days after publication of the notice. In the case of regulatory concerns, the OSC would work with the exchange or ATS to resolve the issues, but implementation may be delayed in such a case.
