In November 2016, the OSC hosted RegHackTO, the first hackathon by a Canadian securities regulator, which attracted more than 120 members of the Canadian fintech community. Participants competed to find solutions to regulatory problems in four areas:
- regtech,
- KYC and identity authentication,
- financial literacy and
- transparency in the capital markets.
These themes emerged:
- Distributed ledger technology is powerful and has the potential to increase efficiencies and transparency in capital markets.
- Open access to data is essential for advancing fintech solutions, particularly with regards to simplifying the collection of KYC information.
- Regulators must be prepared to consider novel fintech ideas and business models in a flexible manner.
Read: OSC, FCA agreement supports expanding fintech firms
Based on these finding, the OSC intends to explore ways to take a more innovative and flexible approach to regulation.
Next steps include considering opportunities to leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence in the OSC’s regulatory work; supporting the facilitation of access to data where it fairly increases competition and provides tangible benefits to investors; and encouraging participants in the fintech community to build and speak to OSC staff about test pilots for centralized KYC information collection and verification processes.
Read: OSC launches CRM2 website for investors
Read the OSC’s white paper on the hackathon’s insights here. Also, view accompanying video that outlines the event and features participants and winners.
Also read: OSC seeking Investor Advisory Panel members