IOSCO has long been committed to encouraging greater enforcement cooperation among regulators 1 Through the efforts of IOSCO, as well as the unilateral and bilateral initiatives of its members, securities and futures regulators have established mechanisms to share information necessary to bring cases. As a result they have considerably improved their ability to investigate cross-border frauds, thereby permitting the initiation of legal actions against the wrongdoers.
Such legal actions can lead to the twin benefits of sanctioning wrongdoers and removing their ill gotten assets, as well as allowing investors to seek compensation for the wrongdoing. The relevant regulators may be able to play a significant role in that respect.
In particular, with the ease that funds can now be transferred from one jurisdiction to another, and thereby out of the reach of defrauded investors, the need for regulators to cooperate with each other to track facilitate the recovery of money across international borders is increasing
In the following study, securities and futures authorities address this by reporting on the range of measures available in their jurisdictions, on both a domestic and cross-border basis, to preserve and recover assets illicitly obtained through securities and futures law violations.
Footnote:
1. "Resolution on commitment on basic IOSCO principles of high regulatory standards and mutual cooperation and assistance" ; 19th Annual Conference of IOSCO, October 1994; "Issued raised for securities and futures regulators by under-regulated and uncooperative jurisdictions" , released at the 19th Annual Conference of IOSCO, October 1994; "Principles for Memoranda of Understanding ", released at the 16th Annual Conference of IOSCO, September 1991.
