The securities regulatory authorities in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec and Saskatchewan announced on February 8, 2018 a co-operation agreement with the French Autorité des marchés financiers (“French AMF“). The agreement extends the work of the CSA Regulatory Sandbox Initiative and the French AMF FinTech, Innovation and Competitiveness division, and provides an environment for businesses to develop innovative solutions in the financial sector. It is intended to help businesses navigate the regulatory systems in both countries, and monitor market developments to identify and propose ways to address emerging regulatory issues. Collaboration is expected to include information sharing, support for financial innovators, referrals, expertise sharing, secondments, and dialogue on fintech and innovative financial services. While a positive development, the agreement does not come with any changes to the current Canadian regulatory regime for fintech innovators as we are seeing implemented or proposed in other jurisdictions such as Spain, Japan and Switzerland.
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