The French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) has just announced that it signed a cooperation agreement with the Israeli Securities Authority (ISA). The financial regulators of both countries have agreed to cooperate closely with each other in several key areas.
Focusing primarily on sharing information that will ensure better investor protection and financial innovation, the agreement was signed at the annual conference of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in Sydney.
The French AMF and the Israeli ISA will be exchanging information on fintech trends in their respective markets as well as discussing regulatory issues related to Blockchain , crypto-assets, artificial intelligence or the use of data and the development of automated financial consulting.
The regulators stated that they intend to support innovative companies in their international development and assist them to better understand the regulations in each jurisdiction. The ISA’s FinTech Innovation Hub created in June 2018, and the AMF’s FinTech division for Innovation and Competitiveness are two divisions which are strongly focused on the main points of cooperation.
Commenting on the news, the President of the AMF, Robert Ophèle, said: “For the past three years, the AMF has shown its commitment to supporting financial innovation and strengthening the competitiveness of Paris as a financial center. The cooperation between our two authorities will provide significant synergies for both markets and a better mutual understanding of innovation trends.”
Anat Guetta, President of ISA, elaborated that Israel is known as a nation for start-ups. In an environment of rapidly developing companies, the regulator aims to create an environment that facilitates the development of innovation in financial technology.
“We have set up an innovation center and we already support several start-ups. We have signed a cooperation agreement with the International Forum for Advancement of Financial Technology (GFIN) and we are part of the government Sandbox team. The agreement with France, promotes an innovative approach to Regulation ,” Guetta elaborated.
