CIRO highlights enforcement activities and achievements in 2025 – 2026 Enforcement Report

Report reflects on a year of meaningful progress for CIRO's Enforcement team, with continued focus on pursuing high-impact cases to protect investors and strengthen market integrity

July 22, 2026 (Toronto, Ontario) – Today, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) released its annual Enforcement Report highlighting the previous year’s enforcement activities, including complaint intake, investigations, and proceedings against dealers and approved persons who have contravened CIRO regulations.

Enforcement is a key lever in fulfilling CIRO’s mission to protect investors, promote high industry standards, and strengthen market integrity. Each year, CIRO publishes the Enforcement Report to provide transparency into the enforcement process and update investment and mutual fund firms, their representatives, the public and regulatory stakeholders about CIRO’s enforcement activities and priorities.

“Effective enforcement supports investor protection, deters harmful behaviour, and reinforces confidence in the integrity of the market,” said Alexandra Williams, Senior Vice-President, Strategy, Innovation and Stakeholder Protection at CIRO. “In the past year, CIRO’s Enforcement team has continued to pursue cases that address serious misconduct and deliver a strong regulatory message, so regulated firms and individuals know the consequences of violating regulations and investors can feel confident investing for their futures.”

The report showcases key statistics and case highlights that provide insight into the kinds of complaints, investigations and cases CIRO has encountered in the past year. In total, CIRO hearing panels imposed over $15 million in sanctions against firms and individuals during Fiscal Year 2026, with suspensions and permanent bans imposed in the majority of cases against individuals.

Enforcement continued to focus on identifying and advancing the most serious and highest impact cases—those that have the greatest implications for investors and for confidence in the market as a whole. The cases advanced were focused on issues of central importance to the securities industry: the effectiveness of supervision and internal controls, as well as the obligation for regulated entities and individuals to act as gatekeepers to the capital markets.

Highlights from the 2025-2026 Enforcement Report include:

• 6,692 complaints were reviewed in the past fiscal year, received from sources including the public, whistleblowers, the Complaints and Settlement Reporting System (ComSet), commissions and other regulators, and internal CIRO departments.
• 151 investigations were completed and 48 enforcement proceedings were concluded.

The Enforcement Report also recaps key milestones that reflect a year of meaningful progress towards integrating and strengthening Enforcement operations, modernizing our regulatory approach, and delivering concrete outcomes that support investor protection and market integrity.

Significant achievements in the past year include the launch of a new Disgorgement Distribution Program, which allows (in applicable cases) for disgorged funds to be distributed directly to investors who suffered financial losses as a result of misconduct. In addition, building on CIRO’s existing efforts to protect investors from scams and fraudulent activity, the Complaints & Inquiries team partnered with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and other stakeholders to launch a new initiative to identify and take down fraudulent and scam investment websites more quickly.

Read the full Enforcement Report on CIRO’s website.