IOSCO Concludes World Investor Week 2017
Education and Protection of Investors Brought to the Attention of the Global Public
Today marks the end of the first World Investor Week, organized by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and its members. This week-long global campaign ran from October 2nd through October 8th and revolved around the importance of investor education and protection.
Over this past week, securities regulators and other stakeholders from more than 80 countries on all continents worked toward the common goal of educating and protecting investors and raising awareness of how to be a smart investor. Several
important international bodies and networks supported World Investor Week (WIW), including IOSCO’s Asia-Pacific Hub, the International Forum for Investor Education (IFIE) and the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB). For example, IOSCO’s Asia-Pacific Hub organized a workshop on leveraging behavioural economics for investor education and protection, while IFIE led a video initiative in the Caribbean that focused on engaging young people with financial literacy and investor education. Finally, the FPSB launched their World Financial Planning Day during the week. Within the next few weeks IOSCO expects to report on the various local as well as regional and global activities that were part of WIW.
Ashley Alder, Chair of the IOSCO Board and the Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, said, “Participation levels and the large variety of investor-focused activities were encouraging. The success of this campaign is due to the dedication and efforts of many IOSCO members and other stakeholders all around the world.”
Paul Andrews, IOSCO Secretary General, said, “It is now important to maintain the momentum and keep working together toward better informed and better protected investors. The reality of today´s capital markets that are increasingly interconnected and digitalized has only reinforced the critical importance of investor education and financial literacy.”
José Alexandre Vasco, Chair of IOSCO´s Committee on Retail Investors, said, “We thank everyone for their support and participation and look forward to reporting on the outcomes of the campaign. We believe the outcomes will provide useful insights for organizations that want to start or build out their activities in the areas of investor education and protection.”
Information about WIW is provided on the campaign website at www.worldinvestorweek.org.
NOTES TO THE EDITORS
- IOSCO is the leading international policy forum for securities regulators and is recognized as the global standard setter for securities regulation. The organization’s membership regulates more than 95% of the world’s securities markets in more than 115 jurisdictions and it continues to expand.
- The IOSCO Board is the governing and standard-setting body of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and is made up of 34 securities regulators. Ashley Alder, the Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, is the Chair of the IOSCO Board. The members of the IOSCO Board are the securities regulatory authorities of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Ontario, Pakistan, Peru, Quebec, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
- The Growth and Emerging Markets Committee is the largest Committee within IOSCO, representing close to 80 per cent of the IOSCO membership, including 11 of the G20 members. Ranjit Ajit Singh, Chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia and Vice Chair of the IOSCO Board, is the Chair of the GEM Committee. The Committee brings members from growth and emerging markets together and communicates members’ views and facilitates their contribution across IOSCO and at other global regulatory discussions. The GEM Committee’s strategic priorities are focused, among others, on risks and vulnerabilities assessments, policy and development work affecting emerging markets, and regulatory capacity building.
- The IOSCO Board approved the establishment of the Committee on Retail Investors (Committee 8) in June 2013. The Committee’s primary mandate is to conduct IOSCO’s policy work on retail investor education and financial literacy. Its secondary mandate is to advise the IOSCO Board on emerging retail investor protection matters and conduct investor protection policy work as directed by the IOSCO Board. José Alexandre Vasco, Director, Office of Investor Protection and Assistance of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (CVM), is the Chair of Committee 8. The members of Committee 8 are the securities regulatory authorities of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Ontario, Portugal, Quebec, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
- IOSCO aims through its permanent structures:
• to cooperate in developing, implementing and promoting adherence to internationally recognized and consistent standards of regulation, oversight and enforcement in order to protect investors, maintain fair, efficient and transparent markets, and seek to address systemic risks;
• to enhance investor protection and promote investor confidence in the integrity of securities markets, through strengthened information exchange and cooperation in enforcement against misconduct and in supervision of markets and market intermediaries; and
• to exchange information at both global and regional levels on their respective experiences in order to assist the development of markets, strengthen market infrastructure and implement appropriate regulation.
- This media release also is available in other languages. Those translations have not been verified by the IOSCO General Secretariat and any formal reference should therefore be made to the original English-language ve
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