Episode summary
Theresa Ebden: Protecting Investors at the OSC | Rational Reminder 396
The Rational Reminder Podcast
· · Hosts: Benjamin Felix · Guests: Theresa Ebden
Summary
Theresa Ebden, vice president of the Investor Office at the Ontario Securities Commission, explains that the OSC’s job is not just rulemaking and enforcement but also investor protection, education, and behavioral research. She says the office uses contact-center data, advisory panels, behavioral insights, and international coordination to identify emerging risks and shape policy, including work on vulnerable investors, trusted contacts, and binding authority for OBSI recommendations.
A major theme is how fraud has evolved. Ebden argues that AI is making scams faster, more polished, and harder to spot through deepfake voices, fake endorsements, and impersonation campaigns, while relationship investment scams exploit loneliness and trust over time. She says the OSC is seeing fraud increasingly move from simple phishing toward more sophisticated, relationship-based and AI-enhanced schemes, and that investors should verify identities, use trusted sources, and report impersonation to police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
The conversation also focuses on finfluencers and gamified investing apps. Ebden says social media advice can strongly influence retail investors, especially non-investors and self-directed users, and that misleading online design can push more trading and risk-taking. She points to OSC research and tools like getsmarteraboutmoney.ca and the trading simulator as ways to inoculate investors against bad habits and improve decision-making.
Key takeaways
- Ebden says the OSC uses research, outreach, and complaints data together to spot investor risks and set priorities.
- She argues AI-enhanced scams are more convincing than traditional fraud because they scale faster and remove obvious red flags like poor grammar.
- Ebden says finfluencer content can materially change behavior, especially among non-investors and self-directed investors using mobile apps.
- She says gamification can increase trading frequency and herding, which the OSC links to weaker investor outcomes.
- The OSC’s response includes plain-language education, a fraud section on getsmarteraboutmoney.ca, and a simulator that shows how app design nudges behavior.
Notable quotes
“our mandate is to provide uh protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices”
“we know that that is what helps inoculate against fraud and help people have a better experience as investors”
“it's not necessarily to the benefit of your long-term financial health”
“AI enhanced scams take the traditional scam world and just magnify this for investors”
How the episode opens
This is the Rational Reminder podcast, a weekly reality check on sensible investing and financial decision-making from two Canadians. We're hosted by me, Benjamin Felix, chief investment officer, and Dan Bordalotti, portfolio manager at PWL Capital. — Welcome to number 396. getting closer and closer to that 400 episode milestone.
An arbitrary milestone that we have nothing special planned for. — That's right. — Yet, but we still have time.
Yeah. Uh so today we welcomed Teresa Ebden who is the vice president of the investor office at the Ontario Securities Commission. Now, if that doesn't sound exciting, I want everyone to know that that Ross, who listeners will know from uh our our year-end episode where you got to hear Ross from One Digital, who sits in on our episode recordings to make sure they are compliant.
As a compliance person, Ross was on the edge of his seat for the whole discussion. I think that's important to point out for for listeners. Uh no, but we had a fantastic conversation with uh Teresa.
The Ontario Securities Commission is a really interesting organization and Teresa introduces a little bit about who they are and what they do. Uh they're a securities regulator obviously in in Ontario. uh but they do a lot of really really interesting work on research uh in investor research and uh uh outreach education uh and between those two things they've produced just a tremendous amount of really really high quality content both research really high quality research papers uh but also retail investor focused educational material through their their getsmarteraboutmoney.ca CA website, which we talk about during the conversation, and you'll hear me get excited about it because I really do think it's a fantastic uh a fantastic website.
So, we we talked a little bit about who the OSC are and and what they do.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai-powered scams
- finfluencers
- investor education
- gamification in investing apps
- osc investor protections
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Ontario Securities Commission
- GetSmarterAboutMoney
- PWL Capital
Watch the episode
Watch “Theresa Ebden: Protecting Investors at the OSC | Rational Reminder 396” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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The Rational Reminder Podcast, this episode and its artwork belong to Benjamin Felix, Cameron Passmore, and Dan Bortolotti. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
