Machine-Readable Securities Regulatory Framework Consultation

Ontario Securities Commission News

Published March 30th, 2026

Detected March 31st, 2026

Summary

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is seeking stakeholder feedback on developing a machine-readable dataset of Ontario's securities rules and regulatory documents. The initiative aims to transform access to securities regulation by using machine-assisted annotation to label and categorize regulatory content, enhancing searchability and reducing compliance burden. Comments are requested by June 30, 2026.

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What changed

The OSC has published an overview describing how a machine-readable regulatory framework could reduce compliance burden and translate securities rules into structured data that firms can integrate into their systems. The initiative follows preliminary stakeholder input collected in 2025 with regulatory data technology company RegGenome, which explored the feasibility of using OSC expert annotation to label statutes, regulations, rules and policies. The goal is to enhance searchability, highlight cross-document linkages, and improve both human and computer understanding of Ontario's securities framework.

Capital market participants should review the OSC's overview document on machine-readable regulations and submit feedback on next steps by June 30, 2026. The OSC's 2026–2027 Statement of Priorities includes a commitment to develop a proof of concept for machine-readable securities regulation, and stakeholder input will guide this work. There are no immediate compliance obligations or penalties associated with this consultation phase.

What to do next

Review the OSC's overview document on machine-readable regulations at osc.ca
Submit feedback on the proposed framework by June 30, 2026
Identify potential use cases within your organization for machine-readable securities data

Source document (simplified)

OSC seeks feedback on efforts to create a machine-readable regulatory framework

OSC

March 30, 2026

For Immediate Release

TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is seeking feedback on how to best build and shape a machine-readable dataset of securities rules and regulatory documents to facilitate improved access, clarity and usability for capital market participants. To support this work, the OSC has published an overview describing how this machine-readable dataset could transform access to securities regulation in Ontario and reduce burden.

“The OSC is exploring how a machine‑readable regulatory framework could reduce compliance burden and translate rules into clear, consistent data that firms can build into their systems from the outset,” said Leslie Byberg, Executive Vice President, Strategic Regulation. “This could result in lower costs and faster compliance, allowing resources to be focused on serving investors and enhancing Ontario’s capital markets.”

In 2025, the OSC collected preliminary stakeholder input on this initiative with the support of RegGenome, a regulatory data technology company. This early work explored the impacts and feasibility of using machine-assisted annotation by OSC experts to label and categorize segments of relevant statutes, regulations, rules and policies. These annotations would enhance searchability, highlight linkages across documents, and improve the ability of humans and computers to understand and analyze the regulatory framework with the potential to make compliance faster and more accurate. The overview published on our website sets out more of the potential impacts of machine-readable regulations for Ontario capital markets participants.

The Commission is requesting further feedback on the next steps to best support investors, industry, and regulatory technology innovators with this dataset. The OSC’s 2026–2027 Statement of Priorities includes our commitment to develop a proof of concept for a machine-readable version of Ontario’s securities regulation, and stakeholder input will help guide the next stage of this important work.

The OSC welcomes comments until June 30, 2026.

The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair, efficient and competitive capital markets and confidence in the capital markets, to foster capital formation, and to contribute to the stability of the financial system and the reduction of systemic risk. Investors are urged to check the registration of any persons or company offering an investment opportunity and to review the OSC investor materials available at www.osc.ca.

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