OSC relaunches best-in-class investor education website GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca

TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) today relaunched its award-winning investor education website GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca with new artificial intelligence tools, the latest accessibility features, and significant design innovations.

The new GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca also introduces design elements informed by behavioural insights to help people make better decisions along their investing journey.

“GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca is one of Canada’s most popular financial education websites used by millions of people each year,” said OSC CEO Grant Vingoe. “The renewed site uses the latest technology and further advances the OSC objective to be recognized as a leader, and an influential, trusted, go-to source of information for the investing community – for both investors and the advisors who serve them.”

GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca provides free, unbiased articles, interesting videos, and interactive tools to help people make more informed investment decisions.

“By introducing innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and through behavioural science tools and insights, the new GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca will help the public turn their newfound investing knowledge and intentions into action,” said Tyler Fleming, Director of the Investor Office at the OSC.

New features on GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca include: 

• Advanced technology
  • AI recommendations engine – provides content for users based on their onsite reading history and curated learning paths — a first of its kind for a Canadian securities regulator.
  • Text-to-voice article reader – makes content easier to consume for users across platforms and abilities.
  • On-site voice search – helps visitors easily search the site to find what they need.
     
• Enhanced accessibility
  • Designed to be an accessibility leader. The internal development team planned ahead to meet or exceed the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2) before they took effect in summer 2023. Areas of focus in the redevelopment, beyond text-to-voice and voice search include:
    • Ease of navigation.
    • Having the same information available in a variety of multimedia formats.
    • Graphic designs, animations, and colour palettes.
    • Screen-reader accessibility.
       
• Innovative design
  • A recognizably unique new look-and-feel incorporating design best practices.
  • Streamlined menus, clearer navigation, and new learning pathways.
  • Custom animations woven through the site that help guide the reader through topics.
     
• Behavioural science
  • Ground-breaking research studies led by the OSC that shed light on retail investor behaviours, attitudes, and experiences.
  • New resources on the psychology of investing and how behavioural biases may influence financial decision making.
  • Behavioural science-informed web design to ensure educational materials are human centred, actionable, and high impact.

Investor News, the OSC’s popular e-newsletter, helps investors stay informed with articles and helpful links to educational resources featured on the new GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca. Investor resources are also available on the OSC’s investor social media channels and through outreach events online and across the province.

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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