International Securities Markets Regulation

A large number of private sector, international, and intergovernmental organizations are actively involved in the area of what may loosely be called "international securities markets regulation." Only the European Community (EC) has achieved a supranational legislative "umbrella" for international market operations, and such an arrangement is highly unlikely to be duplicated by other regional groupings or extended into a multilateral setting for the foreseeable future. Formal cooperation among national regulators is slowly being advanced, however, through the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

IOSCO was established as an inter-American organization in 1974. Originally called the "Inter-American Association of Securities Commissions and Similar Organizations," the institution was initiated by the World Bank and the Organization of American States in order to assist in the development of Latin American securities markets. Its activities during its first decade of existence were limited to annual conferences. The decision to become a global organization was taken in 1984, and the first annual conference held outside North

America was in Paris in 1986. It was at this conference that the decision was taken to create a secretariat, and Canadian Paul Guy was named to the new post of secretary general. It took several years more until the organization could claim at least to comprise all the world's major markets - Japan and Germany were only admitted as members in 1988.

IOSCO Functions:

The member agencies of IOSCO have proclaimed four broad aims for the organization:

- to cooperate together to ensure a better regulation of the markets, on the domestic as well as on the international level in order to maintain just and efficient securities markets;

- to exchange information on their respective experiences in order to promote the development of domestic markets;

- to unite their efforts to establish standards and an ef fective surveil lance of international securities transactions;

- to provide mutual assistance to ensure the integrity of the markets by a rigorous application of the standards and by effective enforcement against offences.

Date: 2014-12-28; view: 869