The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) was established in 1983 to bring together the regulators of the world’s principal stock exchanges.

It has more than 190 members, in two main categories:

• ordinary members: regulators of securities markets
• affiliate members: exchanges, financial organisations, etc.

• Organisation

IOSCO has a number of committees. The main ones are:

• The Presidents’ Committee, composed of the Presidents and Chairman of all securities commissions belonging to IOSCO. It is in effect the organisation’s general assembly.
  
  
• The Executive Committee, which omprises 19 members acting under the authority and supervision of the Presidents’ Committee.
  
  
• The Technical Committee, with 15 members, whose role is to conduct studies on the world’s larger, more developed and internationalised markets.
  
  
• The Emerging Markets Committee , with 75 members from Latin America, Central Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South-east Asia, whose role is to conduct studies on those markets.
  
  
• Four Regional Committees: European, Interamerican, Asia-Pacific and Africa-Middle East. All IOSCO members belong to a regional committee depending on their geographic location.

In addition to these committees, the organisation has established numerous working groups, standing committees and task forces composed of members of the Technical and Emerging Markets Committees. The bodies constitute IOSCO’s “strike force”.

The Organisation has a General Secretariat in Madrid. IOSCO publishes its work on its website, http://www.iosco.org

Members gather each year at an Annual Conference. In addition to this conference, each Committee meets two or three times during the course of the year.

Iosco Membership and Committees lists

• Role

IOSCO’s main objective is to establish international standards that:

• enhance the efficiency and transparency of securities markets
• protect investors, and
• facilitate cooperation among regulators in the fight against financial crime

Its in-depth technical studies, analysis and statement of common principles and international sharing of experience make IOSCO not only an international standard-setter but also a forum for technical exchange and cooperation among members.

• Recent work

In recent years, especially after the events of 11 September 2001 and a series of large-scale bankruptcies, IOSCO has adopted several series of particularly important principles in response to the market crisis. These principles concern:

• auditor independence and oversight of the audit professions;
• auditor independence and oversight of the audit professions;
• financial disclosure and transparency;
• principles regarding conflicts of interest for financial analysts and rating agencies.

These principles are themselves codified in a broader set of thirty guiding principles approved in 1998. For years, the Organisation has debated how best to ensure that these principles are followed. In an initial phase, IOSCO has used self-assessment questionnaires covering the six main areas of securities regulation:

• regulators
• market intermediaries
• issuers
• the secondary market
• collective investment schemes
• inspection

These questionnaires have made it possible to review how consistently and extensively these principles have been put into practice.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank use IOSCO’s reference data – and its experts – to assess the vulnerability of financial systems as part of their Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs).

More recently, IOSCO has developed a new evaluation tool based on precise benchmarks for each principle. In this exercise, an expert assigns an objective rating on each principle and the rules relating to that principle, as a means of pinpointing legal or regulatory shortcomings. The purpose of this methodology is not to compile a blacklist but to make a diagnosis and devise an action plan suited to the particular conditions of each jurisdiction. In this regard, IOSCO plays a technical assistance role towards its less experienced or less developed members.

 

• Contact information

The General Secretariat of IOSCO is located in Madrid, Spain

C/ Oquendo 12
28006 Madrid
Spain
Tel : (34) 91 417 55 49
Fax : (34) 91 555 93 68
E-mail : mail@oicv.iosco.org
Website : http://www.iosco.org

Update: 19 January 2011