The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) announced this week its plans to establish an Expert Investor Issues Panel (EIIP) that will seek input in a notice for comments that will be published later this year.

IIROC says its Investor Research Panel, a pool of 10,000 Canadian investors, already provides direct input through quantitative online surveys. The EIIP will be “a critical, additional layer to these efforts already conducted by IIROC to gauge the public's views on regulatory initiatives and/or other public interest matters,” says the regulator.

"As a pan-Canadian regulator with an investor protection mandate, it is critical to give Canadian investors a voice in IIROC's decision-making processes," says Andrew J. Kriegler, IIROC's President and CEO. "Now, IIROC will go one step further by establishing a panel of experts to advise on investor issues."

Ahead of forming the panel, IIROC will seek feedback from individuals with established roles in the investor landscape, including those with backgrounds in investor education, consumer outreach, seniors and/or vulnerable investor issues, professional regulation, financial services, government, public policy, and/or academics. IIROC will also conduct a search for qualified members of its panel.