The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), has appointed Jean-Paul Servais, the Chairman of the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), as its new Chair.
Servais was appointed at the Annual Meeting of IOSCO held in Marrakech, Morocco, the global standard setter for securities regulation announced on Friday.
The Head of the Belgian FSMA is taking over the position from Ashley Alder, the Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) who has been in the position since May 2016.
Adler had been re-elected chair of the international policy forum for securities regulators in 2020 for a two-year term.
Speaking on his appointment, Servais noted that he would focus on driving sustainable finance as well as crypto and financial stability.
He added that IOSCO’s role in ensuring the smooth running of global capital markets and fighting against climate change remains important, now more than ever.
“Global financial markets depend on IOSCO to ensure that those markets continue to work effectively despite geopolitical uncertainty," Servais said.
"We need to continue on our path of relentlessly developing the effectiveness of global regulatory oversight and coordination to protect investors, ensure market integrity and support global financial stability,” he added.
Meanwhile, Adler believes that Servais, who served as the Vice Chair under him, “will lead IOSCO to new heights.”
Servais will introduce “fresh policy initiatives to increase investor protection, safeguard market integrity and mitigate risks to financial stability from rising interest rates, geopolitical tensions and market fragmentation, among other things," the outgoing Chair said.
MMOU Is 20
Meanwhile, in a separate press statement also released on Friday, IOSCO said it was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU).
The MMoU, which was introduced in 2002, provides securities regulators across the world with the tools to combat cross-border fraud and misconduct to prevent the weakening of global capital markets and the undermining of investor confidence.
In 2017, IOSCO upgraded MMoU to the Enhanced Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (EMMoU) in response to changes sweeping through the global securities markets.
These changes were driven by “new technologies and the growing role of non-bank financial intermediation," IOSCO said.
EMMOU expanded the enforcement powers of signatory securities regulators in order to help them deter financial misconduct and fraud.
New Signatories
Meanwhile, IOSCO disclosed that the total number of information exchanged via the MMoU surged from 56 in 2003 to 5,532 last year.
Additionally, 15 member securities regulators of IOSCO formally signed either the MMoU or EMMoU at a Signing Ceremony held during the Annual Meeting.
The members had met the requirement to append the memoranda over the last three years but were not able to sign them at an IOSCO Annual Meeting because of restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new signatories are securities regulators from Kazakhstan, Georgia, Ghana, India, Monaco, Abu Dhabi, Canada and Brazil.
Others were from the United Arab Emirates, Israel, New Zealand, Peru and Switzerland.
