Former Osgoode Dean and Professor Mary Condon has been appointed as a member of the Central Bank of Ireland Commission for a five-year term beginning Jan. 1, 2024.
In the part-time role, Condon will join Central Bank of Ireland Governor Gabriel Makhlouf and the other members of the commission in carrying out its mandate to ensure that the statutory functions of the central bank are properly discharged. Her appointment was announced recently by Ireland’s Minister for Finance Michael McGrath.
Condon, a dual citizen of Canada and Ireland, said the opportunity will open fascinating new vistas to inform her longstanding research into securities law and financial regulation.
“One of the unique features of the Irish central bank is that it is responsible for regulating almost the entire financial sector in the country,” she explained.
“It’s responsible for regulating banking, insurance, capital markets and investment funds, which is quite different from the approach in Canada – where jurisdiction is either provincial or federal with respect to different components of the financial sector.”
She said the experience will be an interesting opportunity to see first-hand the differences in approach when the same regulator oversees different industries and institutions within the financial system.
Ireland, which remains a member of the European Union (EU), has had one of the fastest growing economies in Europe in recent years.
“They’ve had to adopt policies and laws that are EU-wide,” noted Condon. “So I’ll also be able to understand the EU dimensions of the financial regulatory system in more detail, as well.”
While some countries, like the United States, have multiple regulators at the state and federal levels, other nations, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, have adopted an approach that involves fewer regulators, she explained. Both Australia and the U.K. have separated the regulation of market conduct, in which financial services firms interact with clients, from so-called prudential regulation, which is aimed at ensuring the safety and soundness of financial institutions like banks. Ireland is unique in combining it all under one roof.
Condon has until recently served as a member of an advisory council to Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) CEO Grant Vingoe. In addition, she is a former vice-chair, commissioner and board member of the OSC, and in early 2018 she was appointed as a member of the board of the Capital Markets Authority Implementation Organization (CMAIO), an interim body that was set up to assist with the establishment of a capital markets regulatory authority for co-operating jurisdictions in Canada.
She served as dean of Osgoode Hall Law School from July 1, 2019 to Aug. 31, 2023 and as interim dean from May 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. In 2018, she was selected as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada (Public Sector Category) by the Toronto-based Women’s Executive Network. Between 2014 and 2016 she served as a member of Canada’s National Steering Committee for Financial Literacy. Her research interests are focused on securities law and financial regulation, pensions and feminist legal studies.