The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is an association of organizations that regulate the world's securities and futures markets. Members are typically primary securities and/or futures regulators in a national jurisdiction or the main financial regulator from each country. Its mandate is to:
The Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation serve as the foundational framework for IOSCO's development of global standards in regulation, oversight, and enforcement. These principles have been endorsed by both the G20 and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) as the core guide for internationally recognized securities regulation. IOSCO membership regulates more than 95% of the world's securities markets in more than 130 jurisdictions. It has a permanent secretariat in Madrid, Spain.
IOSCO was born in 1983 from the transformation of its ancestor the "Inter-American Regional Association" (created in 1974) into a truly global cooperative. This decision to expand the organization beyond the Americas was made at the annual gathered in Quito, Ecuador, in April 1983. At the same time, the organization was renamed to IOSCO to reflect the expanded membership beyond North and South America. Securities regulators from France, Indonesia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom were the first agencies to join from outside the Americas. The IOSCO July 1986 Paris Annual Conference was the first to take place outside of the American continents and on that occasion a decision was made to create a permanent General Secretariat for the Organization. The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) was incorporated in 1987 as a not-for-profit legal entity with the help of the Québec government. In the same year, it established its first Secretariat in Montreal. The CVMQ President, Mr. Paul Guy, was named its first Secretary General. One remnant of its early inter-American roots is that IOSCO's "official" languages are English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
In 1998, the IOSCO Principles of Securities Regulation were adopted. They are now the internationally recognized regulatory benchmarks for all securities markets. In 2003, IOSCO endorsed a comprehensive Principles Assessment Methodology. This tool allows the organization to objectively assess how well its members are implementing the IOSCO Principles and to help them create plans to fix any issues found. However it was the September 11, 2001 attacks as well as a series of large global financial scandals that started with Enron and including Worldcom, Parmalat, and Vivendi that brought urgency to this work and heralded IOSCO's evolution from an international "talk shop", where little of substance was accomplished, to a serious international organization with a real impact on the securities regulation. At the 1999 conference in Lisbon,The Secretariat remained in Montreal until 1999, when it was permanently moved to Madrid.
In 2002 IOSCO adopted a multilateral memorandum of understanding (IOSCO MMoU) designed to facilitate cross-border enforcement and exchange of information among the international community of securities regulators, a key part of a top priority for IOSCO to achieve the effective implementation of the IOSCO Principles and the MMoU, thereby facilitating cross-border cooperation, mitigating global systemic risk, protecting investors and ensuring fair and efficient securities markets. Then in 2005 IOSCO MMoU become the benchmark for international cooperation among securities regulators.
As of August 2024, IOSCO had 225 members. IOSCO members are divided into three main categories:
IOSCO chairs and participates in the Monitoring Group (MG), a collaborative body of international regulatory organizations established in 2003. The group was formed to modernize the governance of international audit and ethics standard-setting, ensuring it remains independent of the profession and responsive to the public interest. Key functions include:
As of 2025, the membership of the Monitoring Group consists of IOSCO (chair), the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the European Commission, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), the World Bank, and the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR).
IOSCO is a founding member of the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board, which provides public oversight for the IFRS Foundation and its standard-setting bodies, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The Monitoring Board acts as a formal link between the IFRS Foundation Trustees and public authorities. Its primary responsibilities include:
As of 2025, the Monitoring Board is chaired by Takashi Nagaoka of the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA) and consists of the following members:
The organization is made up of a number of committees that meet several times a year at locations around the world supported by a permanent administrative General Secretariat.
Administratively, IOSCO is run by a General Secretariat based in Madrid, Spain. The IOSCO Board is IOSCO's governing and standard-setting body. It is composed of 35 securities regulators; Jean-Paul Servais, Chairman of the Financial Services and Markets Authority, is the chair of the IOSCO Board. He is supported by a vice chair: Dr. Mohamed Farid Saleh, Executive Chairman, Financial Regulatory Authority, Egypt.
The Growth and Emerging Markets (GEM) Committee is the largest Committee within IOSCO and represents more than 75 percent of the IOSCO membership, including ten of the G20 members. Dr Mohamed Farid Saleh, Executive Chairman of the Financial Regulatory Authority, Egypt, is Chair of the GEM Committee.
The GEM Committee comprises 92 members and 25 non-voting associate members who include the world's fastest-growing economies. Emerging economies are expected to represent a growing portion of IOSCO membership as new members continue to join. IOSCO is the only international standard setter that has a committee solely responsible for emerging market issues. This inclusiveness increases IOSCO's effectiveness and positions it to play a bigger part in shaping the global regulatory framework: The GEM has been allocated a seat on the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board.
IOSCO counts four regional committees: Africa / Middle-East (AMERC) chaired by H.E. Waleed Saeed Al Awadhi, chief executive officer, Securities and Commodities Authority, United Arab Emirates, Asia & Pacific (APRC) chaired by Ms. Julia Leung Chief Executive Officer of the Hong-Kong Securities and Futures Commission, European Regional Committee (ERC) chaired by Mr. Jean-Paul Servais Chairman of Belgium's Financial Services and Markets Authority, and Inter-American Regional Committee (IARC) chaired by Ms. Lucia Buenrostro Vice President of Regulatory Policy at the Mexican Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores.
IOSCO is a member of, participates as an observer in, or coordinates with a number of other organizations. One of its most important relationships is with the Joint Forum of international financial regulators. IOSCO, along with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, make up the Joint Forum.
The IOSCO MOUs are considered the primary instruments to facilitate cross border cooperation, reduce global systemic risk, protect investors, and ensure fair and efficient securities markets.
Additionally, IOSCO is a member of, participates as an observer in, or coordinates with a number of other international organizations, including the OECD, FSB, Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, IASB, PIOB, IMF, World Bank, and European Commission.
IOSCO adopted in 1998 a comprehensive set of Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation (IOSCO Principles). These continue to be developed and expanded. IOSCO recommends all its members to adopt these and helps its members assess the level of compliance with the principles. These include;
Secretary-General of IOSCO:
The 120 Ordinary Members are:
The 33 Associate Members are:
The 72 Affiliate Members are: