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How We Are Regulated

Cboe Canada Inc. (“Cboe Canada” or the “Exchange”) is authorized by the Canadian Securities Administrators (the “CSA”) to operate an exchange for listing and trading securities and certain financial products. To be authorized, exchanges are “recognized” or exempted from recognition under securities legislation in the jurisdictions in which they operate.

Recognition and Exemption Orders

The Exchange is authorized to operate across Canada as an exchange for listing and trading equity and debt securities and certain financial products, including exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and structured products. The initial recognition order was issued by the Ontario Securities Commission (the “OSC”) on November 13, 2014, effective as of March 1, 2015, and was varied on February 27, 2015, September 29, 2015, February 8, 2019, August 31, 2020, May 27, 2022, May 12, 2023, December 1, 2023, and April 5, 2024 (until October 23, 2025)*. Various exemption orders, the first of which was effective on March 1, 2015, have been issued by the other members of the CSA over the years. The current recognition order and exemption order can be found below.

*Effective April 18, 2024, until October 23, 2025, the current recognition order was varied by an order of the OSC, dated April 5, 2024, available (in English only) at https://www.osc.ca/en/securities-law/orders-rulings-decisions/transparency-rtmd-fee-changes-order-varying-exchange-and-ats-protocols , which replaced the text of Schedule 4 of the current recognition order with a new version (attached as Appendix A of the April 5, 2024, order).

To operate nationally, an exchange must be recognized by at least one CSA jurisdiction (the “lead regulator”), in our case, the OSC. The lead regulator directly oversees the Exchange, and the exempting regulators rely on the lead regulator’s oversight. This model is set out in the CSA’s Memorandum of Understanding Respecting the Oversight of Exchanges and Quotation and Trade Reporting Systems. The OSC’s oversight includes the review and approval of our rule and policy changes, significant structural and operational changes, and fee changes. OSC staff also receive other filings and reporting as required under the recognition order.

As a recognized exchange, Cboe Canada can carry out its market regulation activities directly or through a regulation services provider. Similar to the other equity exchanges in Canada, the Exchange has retained the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (“CIRO”) to act as its regulation services provider.

Conditionals Opt-In Feature

Through its MATCHNow order book, the Exchange offers its members and their eligible DEA clients the ability to send conditional orders (“Conditionals”) and to allow those Conditionals to interact with both firm passive dark orders (known as Liquidity Providing orders) and firm active dark orders (known as IOC orders) (referred to collectively as “Firm Orders”), to the extent that the Firm Orders have been opted-in for such interaction through the activation of an optional feature (the “Opt-In Feature”). A member of the Exchange needs to affirmatively activate the Opt-In Feature for it to apply to a Firm Order; otherwise, the system defaults the Firm Order to being opted out for the feature, in which case the Firm Order does not interact with Conditionals. With respect to opted-in Firm Orders sent to the MATCHNow order book, the Exchange is exempt from the pre-trade transparency requirements of subsection 7.1(1) of National Instrument 21-101 Marketplace Operation (“NI 21-101”).

The exemptive relief was granted on December 12, 2023, to take effect on January 1, 2024, and can be found below.

The decision from the Autorité des marchés financiers is also included below for reference.

Regulatory Policies & Procedures

Consistent with regulation as an exchange with a public interest mandate and our guiding principle of transparency, we will provide ongoing information on how we meet our regulatory obligations and seek input from our stakeholders.

Regulatory Oversight Committee

The Exchange is required, under its recognition order, to establish and maintain a Regulatory Oversight Committee (the “ROC”). The structure and obligations of the ROC are set out in Schedule 2 to the recognition order and are reflected in the committee’s mandate, which can be found below.

Conflicts of Interest and Confidentiality Policies

Mitigation of potential conflicts of interest and protection of confidential information are paramount to the integrity of our marketplace. As a recognized exchange, Cboe Canada must identify, address and manage conflicts of interest and ensure that it acts in the public interest.

The recognition order requires that the ROC, among its other responsibilities, consider real or perceived conflicts of interest that may arise, including but not limited to in the following contexts:

  • Ownership interests in Cboe Canada by any Cboe Canada marketplace participant with representation on the board of Cboe Canada;
  • Significant changes to the ownership of Cboe Canada; and
  • The profit-making objective and the public interest responsibilities of Cboe Canada, including general oversight of the management of the regulatory and public interest responsibilities of Cboe Canada.

The following policies have been developed and are maintained to manage real or perceived conflicts of interests in these and other instances:


The Conflicts of Interest and Confidentiality Policy Relating to Shareholders covers:

  • The involvement of a representative of a significant shareholder in the management or oversight of the exchange operations or regulation functions of the Exchange and the services and products it provides;
  • The interactions between the Exchange and a significant shareholder where the Exchange may be exercising discretion that involves or affects the significant shareholder either directly or indirectly, including listing the shares of a significant shareholder; and
  • Specific confidentiality provisions designed to ensure that information regarding marketplace operations and regulation functions of all the Exchange members and/or issuers are kept separate and confidential from the business or other operations of any significant shareholder and not used to provide an unfair advantage to the significant shareholder or any of its affiliated entities.

The Conflicts of Interest Policy Relating to Issuers and the Listed Competitor Conflicts Policy cover the regulation functions and the business activities of the Exchange in the listings context.

Rules, Fees and Changes

The Exchange’s rules and policies (the Trading Policies, Listing Manual, and Listing Forms), as well as our fees and operational and governance structure, have been approved by the OSC.

New public interest rules and rule amendments must be provided by Exchange staff to the ROC, which is responsible for reviewing proposed rules and deciding on or making recommendations to the board of directors regarding the filing.

The rules must then be submitted to the OSC and the exempting regulators for review and approval by the OSC in accordance with Schedule 4 to the recognition order. Fee changes and changes to information on operations and governance previously filed must also be filed in accordance with Schedule 4 to the recognition order.

All non-housekeeping rule changes and certain significant changes, including those that are considered to have an impact or potential impact on the Exchange’s market structure or members, or on issuers, investors, or the capital markets, or that otherwise raise public interest concerns, must be published for comment.

In addition to the Trading Policies, trading on the Exchange is governed by the Universal Market Integrity Rules (“UMIR”) maintained by CIRO. (To reference UMIR, please go to www.ciro.ca .)

Appeal Procedures

In accordance with its recognition order, the Exchange has adopted procedures setting out the steps for appealing a decision made by the Exchange (the “Appeal Procedures”). The Appeal Procedures were treated as a public interest rule and were approved by the OSC on January 7, 2016; they can be found below.