The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced a new Cooperation Agreement with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), a year after entering into a similar agreement with the Ontario Securities Commission.  The CSA is made up of the following Canadian regulators:

• Autorité des marchés financiers (Québec);

• British Columbia Securities Commission;

• Alberta Securities Commission;

• Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan;

• Manitoba Securities Commission;

• Financial and Consumer Services Commission (New Brunswick); and

• Nova Scotia Securities Commission.

The Cooperation Agreement will expand the existing framework for ASIC to share information with the CSA, which will allow each regulator to share and learn from initiatives such as the ASIC Innovation Hub and the CSA Regulatory Sandbox.  ASIC and the CSA will also be allowed to refer innovative fintech businesses looking to operate in the other’s jurisdiction to each other.

To date, fintech referral and information-sharing agreements have also been entered into by ASIC with regulators in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Ontario, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Switzerland, Dubai, Kenya, Indonesia and China.

Edwin Tan also contributed to this post.