2025-2029 strategic plan of Autorité des marchés financiers: Addressing emerging risks while demonstrating resilience

On June 2, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF, Quebec's securities regulator) published its 2025-2029 Strategic Plan (the Plan), which builds on its 2021 strategic plan while addressing the changing geopolitical and economic contexts, as well as the emergence of new risks.

In fact, some of the issues the AMF focused on in its previous strategic plan remain relevant today, such as financial education of the public, sustainable finance and climate change, technological innovation, not to mention organizational resilience.

This legal update provides an overview of the AMF's three strategic orientations for the coming years, with predictability and innovation central to its priorities.

Orientation 1: Enhancing consumers’ experience

The AMF puts consumers right at the heart of its strategy by modernizing its range of services to better meet their changing needs. It focuses on accessibility, clear information, and simple procedures, while strengthening support for victims and simplifying dispute resolution mechanisms.

At the same time, the AMF will make financial education a key lever for prevention by making its educational tools more accessible and strengthening its partnerships to reach a broader audience, particularly more vulnerable clients.

The commercial practices of the financial sector will also be subject to monitoring and oversight activities. To this end, it will take into account reports arising from the handling of complaints and calls directed to the information centre.

The AMF has also set ambitious targets for increasing consumer satisfaction with its assistance services and has established targets for the proportion of disputes resolved within 120 days.

Orientation 2: Acting to maintain a financial sector that is dynamic and operating with integrity

When presenting the Plan to the Canadian Club on June 2, AMF president and CEO Yves Ouellet reaffirmed his commitment to encouraging consultation with industry stakeholders to prevent any surprises related to its regulatory framework. This goal of predictability, along with the goal of strengthening the regulatory framework, will result in more communication about enforcement, priorities for action, and regulatory developments.

To strengthen market efficiency and the financial sector's resilience, the AMF intends to take a stance and act on emerging risks, such as the deployment of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and climate issues. It will also increase its oversight of rapidly growing private markets to better understand and manage the risks specific to them.

In addition, the AMF intends to step up the integration of new technologies into its operations, particularly by implementing autonomous and intelligent systems, and to optimize the value of data. 

The performance indicators related to this focus area include a gradual increase in the rate of completion of the annual regulatory framework development action plan and maintaining the resilience index of financial institutions.

Orientation 3: Supporting talent and organizational performance

To meet its specialized workforce needs, the AMF wants to offer its staff a stimulating and inclusive experience. It plans to achieve this by optimizing its internal management model, promoting staff development, and implementing an integrated equity, diversity, and inclusion strategy. It will also ensure its talent pool stays aligned with its strategic priorities. Finally, it will review its administrative and decision-making processes to optimize the use of its resources and promote organizational efficiency.

The authors would like to thank Despina Tritos, Vincent Bulzak and Annabel Caputo, summer students, for their contribution to preparing this legal update.