OSC publishes 2023 Corporate Finance Branch Report

TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) today published its annual Corporate Finance Branch Report, an important resource to help issuers and their advisors with their reporting obligations.

“Engagement with our stakeholders continues to be a critical component of our work. This report is one aspect of our ongoing communications regarding compliance, trends and market observations,” said Winnie Sanjoto, Director, Corporate Finance at the OSC. “We believe it provides useful guidance to issuers and informs the broader market about our operations.”

The report provides issuers with guidance on trends and issues identified during compliance reviews, such as disclosure expectations for management’s discussion & analysis (MD&A), including examples of disclosures concerning non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and other financial measures, forward-looking information, results of operations and greenwashing. It also highlights our concerns on matters related to audit committees. 

The report also contains best practices on prospectus filings, including promoter guidance, and describes the advancement of our work on various policy projects, including the creation of prospectus exemptions to promote capital formation and reduce regulatory burden.

OSC Staff Notice 51-735 Corporate Finance Branch 2023 Annual Report is available on the OSC’s website.

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 http://www.osc.ca.

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