The Bureau was created within the context of a major reform of Québec’s financial sector. This reform followed a report on financial sector regulation entitled "A Streamlined Regulatory Structure for Québec's Financial Sector", filed on December 13, 2001 by a task force chaired by Yvon Martineau. The report was followed by the introduction, on May 8, 2002, of Bill No. 107 respecting the Agence nationale d’encadrement du secteur financier. This bill was adopted and assented to on December 11, 2002.

The effect of the reform was, on one hand, to merge into a single regulatory body, the Autorité des marchés financiers (the “Autorité”), the mandate to administer all the laws governing the supervision of Québec’s financial sector, notably in the sectors of insurance, securities, deposit-taking institutions and the distribution of financial products and services in Québec. On the other hand, the reform created the Bureau de décision et de révision en valeurs mobilières, an independent administrative tribunal specialized in securities. The legislative provision of the Act respecting the Autorité des marchés financiers creating the Bureau came into effect on December 3, 2003 and the Bureau began exercising its jurisdiction on February 1, 2004.

Since April 1, 2010, the Bureau is named Bureau de décision et de révision and its powers have been broadened to include certain aspects of the insurance sector and account rendering, following the coming into force of Bill 74, An Act to Amend Various Legislative Provisions Principally to Tighten the Regulation of the Financial Sector.

The Bureau functions as an administrative tribunal charged in first instance, at the request of the Autorité or any interested person, with exercising certain powers provided for in the Securities Act and the Derivatives Act. This means that a person may request that the Bureau hold a hearing on the subjects listed below to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Securities Act and the Derivatives Act and that the latter is not restricted solely to deciding disputes between a citizen and an administrative authority or a decentralized authority. In addition, the Bureau exercises, at the request of a person directly affected, the powers of review of the decisions of the Autorité, an exchange, a clearing house, a self-regulatory organization or a recognized regulated entity. Its hearings are subject to rules made under Chapter V of Title X of the Securities Act . A decision of the Bureau is the result of a quasi-judicial legal process and is rendered, unless decided otherwise, in the context of an adversarial hearing.

The powers conferred upon the Bureau enable it more particularly to:

1. revoke, suspend or restrict the rights granted by registration to a securites dealer or adviser; a dealer, adviser or representative in derivatives;
2. make an order prescribing a course of action concerning a legal person, partnership, an entity carrying on securities trading or clearing activities or a recognized regulated entity;
3. make an order regarding a take-over bid or issuer bid;
4. make a freeze order;
5. make an order against any person in order to remedy a situation or to deprive a person of the profit realized as a result of the non-compliance;
6. deny the benefit of an exemption;
7. order the cessation of an activity in respect of a transaction in securities or derivatives;
8. order a person to cease carrying on business as a securities or derivatives adviser;
9. prohibit or place restrictions on representations in view of a transaction in a particular security;
10. issue a reprimand;
11. impose an administrative penalty or the repayment of the cost of an investigation; and
12. make an order prohibiting a person from acting as director or senior executive.

In first instance, the Bureau may also, at the request of the Autorité, take any measure conducive to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Securities Act or the Derivatives Act.

The Bureau also exercises the powers of review of the decisions of the Autorité, a recognized regulated entity or a self-regulatory organization, such as the Montréal Exchange, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), The Canadian Depository for Securities and the Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation.

Accordingly, the Bureau is in substance a tribunal charged with deciding disputes to which it is not a party, over which it does not assume jurisdiction on its own account and for which it decides on the basis of legal considerations and on the basis of the facts proved before it by the parties. It is disinterested in the outcome of the dispute and is called upon to act as an impartial third party on which the parties rely. It generally exercises the quasi-judicial powers that were conferred in the past to the Commission des valeurs mobilières du Québec in both disciplinary and financial matters.

It therefore fully respects the requirements of section 23 of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms:

“23. Every person has a right to a full and equal, public and fair hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, for the determination of his rights and obligations or of the merits of any charge brought against him.”

Once filed with the Superior Court, a decision of the Bureau becomes executory in the same way as a decision of the Superior Court, and has all the effects thereof. This would be the case notably with regard to the imposition of administrative penalties, which can amount to as much as $1,000,000. We can also point out that the Bureau may be called upon to decide a dispute between two companies, especially in the context of a public tendering process. The Bureau may also hold hearings in conjunction with and consult with any other authority responsible for the supervision of securities trading in Canada or elsewhere in the world. For the conduct of these hearings, the Bureau has adopted rules of procedure that are described in Rules of procedure of the Bureau de décision et de révision.

Any person directly interested in a final decision of the Bureau de décision et de révision en valeurs mobilières may appeal therefrom to the Court of Québec. Its decisions are in turn subject to an appeal before the Court of Appeal, with leave of a judge of the latter court

Some provisions of the Act Respecting Public Enquiry Commissions apply to the hearings of the Bureau.