International Organization of Securities Commissions

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is the international body bringing together the world's securities regulators. It traces its origins to a 1983 transformation of an inter-American regional association into a global organization, and its General Secretariat is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. IOSCO's membership covers regulators responsible for the large majority of the world's securities markets, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, Japan's Financial Services Agency, and emerging-market authorities such as India's SEBI and Brazil's CVM.

IOSCO's core output is soft law rather than treaty obligation. Its foundational document, the Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation (first adopted in 1998 and revised periodically), sets out three objectives: protecting investors; ensuring markets are fair, efficient, and transparent; and reducing systemic risk. These principles are assessed by the IMF and World Bank under the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP).

A second pillar is cross-border enforcement cooperation. The IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU), launched in 2002, allows signatory regulators to share information and assist in investigations of insider trading, market manipulation, and fraud. An Enhanced MMoU (EMMoU) was opened for signature in 2017, expanding powers to obtain audit work papers, internet records, and compelled testimony. Signing the MMoU has become a de facto credential of regulatory credibility.

IOSCO is structured around a Board (its governing body), regional committees, and policy committees covering issuers, secondary markets, intermediaries, enforcement, investment management, credit ratings, and retail investors. It works closely with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, jointly developing standards on areas like central counterparty resilience, money market funds, and crypto-asset markets. In 2023 IOSCO published a policy framework for crypto and digital asset markets, urging members to apply equivalent regulation to comparable activities.

For MUN delegates working on ECOFIN, the G20, or financial-stability topics, IOSCO is the technical body whose recommendations often shape what national legislatures later codify.