Strengthening our partner and stakeholder engagement

We’re transforming how we work with partners and stakeholders with a new approach to engagement aimed at:

• reducing stakeholder burden
• enhancing our influence
• informing decision-making

Our vision of engagement

Our vision is for engagement that is:

• coordinated: we coordinate our engagement strategically, at an organizational level
• intentional: we plan engagements aimed at developing long-term, enduring relationships
• measurable: we constantly assess our performance to learn from each outreach and work to improve

Our principles of engagement

We believe that engagement should be guided by principles of:

• relevancy: engagement activities focus on participants and increase participation
• accountability: engagement activities contribute to our relationship with each participant
• sustainability: integrating a stakeholder-centric approach to help transform short-term collaborations into vital longer-term relationships
• transparency: engagement activities are broadly accessible to all stakeholders avoiding any perception of regulatory capture or conflict of interest
• inclusiveness: engagement activities involve a wide variety of people and address potential barriers to participation

Future engagement

We’ve improved how we’ll determine which engagement opportunities we’ll pursue. We’ll prioritize taking part in speaking engagements that are open to stakeholders and advance understanding of our work.

We are continually exploring innovative ways to expand how to reach our partners and stakeholders and develop meaningful relationships with them. Stay tuned for further announcements on new ways to engage with us.

Speaking events

The following criteria is used when evaluating an invitation for OSFI staff to participate as a speaker at an event or conference. 

This is not intended to evaluate participation by OSFI staff at conferences where they are not making a presentation, nor is it a tool for evaluating OSFI participation at business meetings organized by stakeholders.

Context

• While engaging with partners and stakeholders, public entities must maintain a high degree of transparency and accountability to build and maintain public confidence and credibility.
• This is especially so for independent regulatory agencies who must be particularly sensitive to perceptions of conflicts of interest, preferential access, and/or perceptions of regulatory capture.
• OSFI participates in speaking events that align with its strategic and operational goals and allow it to ensure transparency and public accountability and avoid such perceptions.

Criteria for participation at speaking events

The following will be taken into consideration in decisions related to participation in speaking engagements:

1. The speaking engagement avoids the perception of preferential access, conflict of interest and/or regulatory capture, by the extent to which they:
   • Are open to /accessible to OSFI stakeholders, public and the media.
   • Balance OSFI’s participation at events organized by competing organizations, institutions and forums so that no individual firm is seen as a preferred by OSFI over its competitors or like organizations.
   • Ensure OSFI’s presence does not create a real or perceived business advantage for the hosting organization.
   • Ensure the cost of participation of OSFI and participants, venue, and other elements associated with the event would be seen as reasonable and credible to the public.
2. The speaking engagement furthers OSFI’s transparency by:
   • Promoting them through OSFI appropriate communications channels. e.g. internal, external website, social media, publications.
   • Allowing OSFI to publish or rebroadcast remarks made at the event.
   • OSFI values transparency and openness as core values and will continue to prioritize speaking events that are open and transparent. In the circumstance that the event is closed, OSFI will consider participating but will publish the following information:
     • Remarks shared (or in exceptional circumstances a summary of remarks)
     • A general description of the audience
     • Timing of the event
3. The speaking engagement fosters understanding and/or seeks feedback on OSFI guidance, expectations, and/or position among stakeholders when:
   • Events organized by OSFI or stakeholders (such as, but not limited to, industry associations) are for the purposes of advancing understanding, providing feedback or implementation of direction provided by OSFI.