The independent review of OBSI is in - and it feeds a bigger shift for advisers
Canada's securities regulators have received an independent evaluator's report on the banking and investment ombudsman, as work advances toward binding dispute resolution.
The Joint Regulators Committee, which oversees the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments alongside the Canadian Securities Administrators, said on July 22, 2026 that it had received a copy of the report, published the same day. The committee thanked the evaluator for a thorough review and said it welcomed the findings.
For advisers and dealers, the timing matters. The CSA said the report arrives as it advances a proposed framework for an independent dispute resolution service with binding authority - a change that would reshape how firms resolve client complaints that reach the ombudsman.
The statement did not summarize the report's findings. The committee said it would review the findings and recommendations carefully as it considers next steps, and that it would keep meeting with OBSI staff and sit down with OBSI's board of directors later this year to discuss the report and the ombudsman's views.
The committee also restated what regulators expect of the firms they register. It said it expects registrants to take part in OBSI's services in a manner consistent with their obligation to deal fairly, honestly and in good faith with their clients. It described OBSI's role in providing fair, efficient, accessible and independent dispute resolution as crucial to Canadian investors and market participants, and to confidence in the capital markets.
The oversight arrangement dates back more than a decade. In 2014, amendments to National Instrument 31-103 came into force requiring all registered dealers and advisers outside Québec to offer OBSI's services to their clients. Alongside those changes, the CSA and OBSI signed a memorandum of understanding setting standards for the ombudsman in areas including governance, independence, fairness, fees, resources, accessibility and transparency.
That agreement also committed OBSI to an independent evaluation within two years of the amendments and at least once every five years after that. The last review was conducted in 2021, with the evaluator's report released in June 2022.
The committee itself was formed when the CSA and OBSI joined with the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada - now combined as the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization. Chaired by Grant Vingoe, chief executive of the Ontario Securities Commission, it includes CSA representatives from British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Québec, along with CIRO.
The full text of Joint Regulators Committee Receives OBSI Independent Evaluator's Report is available at https://www.osc.ca/en/news-events/news/joint-regulators-committee-receives-obsi-independent-evaluators-report.
