OSC continues compliance review activity: Information on remote compliance reviews and what you need to know

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Compliance and Registrant Regulation Branch of the OSC has continued its operations, including its compliance review activity.  As OSC staff and market participants continue to work from home, we are currently not conducting on-site reviews, but have adapted our compliance review process in order to conduct compliance reviews of registrant firms remotely.  We understand that firms are facing challenges presented by the current pandemic.
 
Reviews will continue to take place through telephone and video conferences, and documents will be exchanged through our existing secure file transfer system, Kiteworks.  We are also being flexible on deadlines for requested information. OSC staff will work with the firms contacted for compliance reviews to establish an approach that minimizes disruption yet allows us to meet our regulatory mandate.
 
Firms contacted for an OSC compliance review can use the following resources to assist them in preparing for a review:

While initially postponed, we announced on May 29, 2020 that we would be issuing the 2020 Risk Assessment Questionnaire on June 11, 2020, and a short survey related to the impacts of COVID-19 on July 9, 2020.  Further details of the 2020 RAQ and COVID-19 survey, including timelines for completion, can be found here.