Osgoode’s Certificate in Regulatory Compliance laid the foundation for MJ Empensando’s Securities Law LLM

Mary Joyce Empensando feels as though she has grown up in tandem with the Canadian compliance industry.

The advisory board and faculty member for Osgoode’s Certificate in Regulatory Compliance and Legal Risk Management for Financial Institutions actually got her start in banking as a branch manager, only for a chance reassignment to open up a new professional avenue in financial services.

“I fell into this compliance role because it was all that was open at the time and I had no idea what it meant. This was in the 1990s and compliance wasn’t really a thing yet,” Empensando explains. “But I learned on the job from great leadership and it turned out to be something I was good at.”

“I entered at the perfect time to be able to ride what I will call the ‘bull market’ for compliance, when the industry started realizing that we need dedicated subject matter experts engaging in timely surveillance of all kinds of activity to make sure that the rules are being followed and at a time when banking leadership really started embracing compliance as an important control function,” she adds.

Arriving at such a formative moment for the compliance industry also gave Empensando and her small band of colleagues at other financial services organizations a unique chance to shape future development in the field.

“Today, a lot of the compliance policies are already written and we all know how it’s supposed to work, but back then, we were building something that didn’t have a history or a solid foundation from which to launch,” she says.

Now the Chief Compliance Officer for Questrade, Empensando oversees a staff of 80 supporting the compliance efforts of the company and its subsidiaries, who together are answerable to a total of 33 regulators of various stripes.

“We cover a large scope of compliance requirements: from Real Estate to Banking and everything from codes of conduct and whistleblower policies across the enterprise, to very specific compliance requirements at the transactional level within our securities dealer,” Empensando says. “I see my job as ensuring that my team has the tools to engage in their role and carry out the obligations of the enterprise.”

As part of that stewardship role, she encourages her employees to boost their credentials by enrolling in Osgoode’s Certificate in Regulatory Compliance.

“As compliance professionals, we tend to focus very closely on the task at hand. The Certificate in Regulatory Compliance allows individuals to come out of the forest, take a look at all of the trees and understand the wider scope of what compliance means across several financial services industries in Canada, as opposed to what it means in one job,” Empensando says.

Candidates for Osgoode’s Certificate in Regulatory Compliance have the choice of attending the intensive five-day course either in-person or online, with modules spread over three months in early 2026. Both streams feature a combination of live and asynchronous learning on a range of topics, from compliance program basics to the challenges associated with emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence. 

With a focus on real-world examples, attendees can expect to leave with the practical knowledge and skills they need to effectively assess, monitor and mitigate regulatory and operational risks.

Over a decade of involvement with Osgoode’s certificate program – whether as an attendee, speaker or advisory board member – Empensando has developed a fondness for one module in particular.

“My personal highlight is what we call ‘regulatory day,’ when we have speakers from all the major regulators across Canada come to teach us about compliance from their perspective, how they engage in their craft, trends in the area and novel issues that they are facing,” says Empensando, who chairs the discussion. “Compliance professionals who attend the course walk away from that day with information that their leaders probably don’t have, because it’s so brand new and in the moment.”

She has recently deepened her connection to Osgoode even further, after enrolling in its part-time Professional LLM in Securities Law.

“Osgoode’s Certificate in Regulatory Compliance provided the perfect foundation for the Securities Law LLM course and I think it would also be a great base for moving into other complex programs in related areas, such as the Financial Law LLM or even the Privacy and Cybersecurity Law LLM,” she says.