What does an investment fund analyst do?

The main role of an analyst at AMF Investment Funds is to ensure that investment funds are complying fully with securities regulations. We conduct analyses and reviews on specific topics such as, to cite a recent example, liquidity risk management by investment fund managers or disclosure by socially responsible investment funds.

Tell us about your academic and professional journey up to the time you joined the AMF.

I have a math-oriented academic background and hold a master’s in finance in the field of asset management. After I graduated, I worked for over 10 years as an equity and fixed income portfolio manager with an insurance company in Paris. While there, I had the opportunity to collaborate with France’s Autorité des marchés financiers. I joined the AMF in Québec 18 months ago as an investment fund analyst. I was drawn to the regulatory side of the industry and wanted to learn about the issues affecting the Québec and Canadian markets. In addition to adjusting to life in Québec, my main challenge has been to fully understand Québec local and Canadian regulations. Each file I’ve worked on has been an opportunity to find a concrete way to apply the regulations and evaluate various interpretations using a risk management-based approach.

What does a typical day look like in your field?

Each day is different. Tasks can vary from simple media or market monitoring to a risk assessment of crypto ETFs, which is quite exotic. Learning is part and parcel of our work because of the ongoing evolution of financial markets within the global economic context and because of collaboration among the professionals on our team, which includes accountants, lawyers and auditors. Meanwhile, interactions with members of other Canadian and international securities regulators and with the various industry participants provide us with an eye-in-the-sky view of major issues.

The AMF in one word?

Balance. The AMF helps its employees maintain a work-life balance and pays special attention to their well-being, which contributes significantly to their personal and collective growth.

What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

As director, I manage and coordinate the work of the team tasked with completing regulatory initiatives involving sustainable finance and ESG issues for the securities markets and derivatives sectors of the AMF and with supervising issuer compliance with sustainable finance and ESG-related disclosure requirements. We proactively identify emerging issues and trends in the sector and ensure they are adequately addressed in regulatory texts, guidance, notices and other written positions. We represent the AMF in national and international forums.

Tell us about your academic and professional journey up to the time you joined the AMF.

After I was called to the Québec Bar, I focused on corporate and securities law, quickly specializing in regulatory, compliance and governance issues. Before joining the AMF in 2017, I worked at a private law firm and an exchange. I first joined the AMF as a member of Corporate Finance but moved to the investment products sector because I wanted to develop new coordination skills and acquire a comprehensive understanding of the financial markets. In 2023, I was promoted to manager of the new Sustainable Finance Oversight and Supervision unit. My situation is a perfect example of how you can grow your career within the organization and how the AMF is constantly renewing itself to meet new challenges in the financial sector.

What makes a career at the AMF unique?

Its mission! For a securities lawyer, it’s being able to work with others to implement effective regulations that support the development of the financial sector and address the needs of consumers, businesses and the economy as a whole. Financial markets are essential tools for modern societies and drivers of prosperity—we have to make sure they can fully play this role and at the same time make sure consumers of financial products and services are protected.

what motivates you?

Broadening my horizons and dealing with new or emerging issues. With the financial sector undergoing a deep and accelerated transformation, we are regularly called upon to deal with various topics. For the past few years, I have been working on issues  relating to the impact of climate change and the incorporation of ESG factors into financial activities and decision-making. Stakeholders, understandably, have high expectations of regulators, wanting us to contribute to the emergence of a more sustainable financial sector. That’s why we are engaged at the local, national and international levels.

The AMF in one word?

Driven.

What does a corporate finance analyst do?

A corporate finance analyst is responsible for:

• analyzing disclosures in prospectuses and various finance documents used by issuers (including take-over bid or issuer bid circulars, director’s circulars and rights offering circulars), including reviewing disclosures to ensure that no receipt-refusal grounds exist, ensuring that all risks related to the investment and the issuer, its business and its industry are sufficiently disclosed, and discuss observations on material deficiencies identified by our multidisciplinary teams with the issuers and their financial and legal advisors.
• analyzing applications for exemptive relief from Québec securities legislation and regulations related to corporate finance and restructuring transactions, including assessing the merits of each application, ensuring that applications do not affect investor protection, managing interactions with issuers and their advisors, drafting recommendations to grant or deny exemptive relief applications, and drafting the related decisions and documentation.
• ensuring that AMF Corporate Finance actively participates in securities-related regulatory development and legislative and regulatory enforcement projects in connection with corporate finance and restructuring transactions under AMF Corporate Finance’s responsibility, including carrying out fund analyses, research, comparisons and consultations with market participants when draft regulations, policy statements, directives or other securities-related notices are being developed; drafting proposals that take into account Québec’s legal, social and economic context and the AMF’s mission, and taking an active role in the various work stages, including in drafting and negotiating regulatory texts, and sitting on multidisciplinary taskforces or committees set up internally or within the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) for that purpose.
• handling both requests for information and assistance related to corporate finance and corporate restructuring transactions from companies and their representatives and requests from the various units within the AMF and the CSA.
• processing filings for restructuring transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, take-over and issuer bids and corporate arrangements, including ensuring that all risks related to the transaction, the parties involved and their respective companies and industries are adequately disclosed and that the transaction as a whole is not detrimental to the protection of investors or prejudicial to the public interest, in accordance with the requirements of the applicable securities legislation and regulations.

Tell us about your academic and professional journey up to the time you joined the AMF.

I hold a bachelor’s degree in international commerce and a bachelor of laws. I was called to the Québec Bar in 2007 and began practising in commercial litigation at a large law firm. After that, I worked at a boutique firm that specialized in business immigration law. I then moved to a firm that focused on commercial, corporate, transactional (corporate mergers/acquisitions) and securities law. After about 10 years in private practice, I joined the AMF Corporate Finance team as an analyst and was recently promoted to senior corporate finance analyst.

What does a typical day look like in your field?

My days as a corporate finance analyst are exciting and engaging. As our unit is tasked with ensuring compliance with multiple securities regulations, analysts are usually working on more than one file at a time, each raising separate and diverse issues and considerations. In my field, analysis and drafting sessions, interactions with stakeholders on a file and multidisciplinary team meetings to discuss, negotiate and find solutions to considerations and issues particular to our mandates and special projects are all in a day’s work. A typical day usually consists of a balance of scheduled work and managing files, questions or other matters that occur on a one-off basis depending on the needs of the constantly changing capital markets.

What is your main challenge in your position?

As our mandate is to ensure investor protection and market efficiency, we strive in each of our files and projects to find the best balance between those two objectives, which are central to the AMF’s mission. Achieving that balance on a daily basis is a major challenge for us.

What prompted you to join the AMF?

A friend and former colleague who had also worked in private practice for over 10 years and had recently joined AMF Corporate Finance recommended the AMF to me. The things she told me about the AMF—about its stimulating environment where people enjoy working through sophisticated and complex legal issues, its team of energetic and innovative professionals and an organizational culture where work-life balance is a real priority—gave me an appreciation of what the AMF had to offer in terms of practising law.

The AMF in one word?

Resolve.