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The Ontario government has announced plans to transfer responsibility for syndicated mortgage investments to the Ontario Securities Commission.

The segment of the mortgage market, worth $6 billion at the beginning of 2016 and currently regulated by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, was singled out for being exposed to “regulatory gaps” in a provincial report last year that called for FSCO to be overhauled.

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The Ontario government, which announced the transfer of oversight Thursday as part of its spring budget, said the move “is consistent with both the expert advisory panel’s report and the manner in which these products are regulated in other provinces.”

A timeline was not provided in the budget document, which says only that “the government will work with regulators to plan an orderly transfer of the oversight of these products.”

Before the transfer of power takes place, which industry sources suggest could take as long as two years, the province said it would move forward with more protection for investors in the sector, which is now the subject of several lawsuits.