The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is celebrating the sixth annual World Investor Week (WIW) from 3 to 9 October 2022, focusing on innovations that are reshaping the marketplace, such as sustainable finance and crypto assets, and on the current challenging environment that requires enhancing investor resilience.
The campaign started this week with different global and regional launching events, such as the Ring the Bell Ceremonies for Financial and Investor Education in New Zealand and Poland, and video messages in Japan and France, ahead of other regional kick-off events in Angola and Brazil.
As in previous years, different participants will be conducting a range of activities to promote investor education and investor protection, including securities regulators, financial authorities, market participants and financial industry associations, international organizations, universities and other organizations representing civil society. The G20 Presidency of Indonesia also supports the WIW.
As part of this campaign, the IOSCO WIW is delivering Key Messages, in plain English, relating to investor resilience, sustainable finance, crypto assets, and frauds and scams prevention, to facilitate the understanding by retail investors and the general public of some basic points regarding these topics.
Martin Moloney, Secretary General of IOSCO, said: “IOSCO is pleased to support a global campaign that promotes investor education as a way to enhance investor protection and confidence in the market. Investors need to understand and trust the market to do business and take advantage of the financial products and services it offers, with a view to increase their financial well-being, plan for the future, and remain financially resilient. Regulation and supervision are necessary, but financial literacy rounds out this work.”
Jose Vasco (CVM Brazil), WIW Working Group Coordinator, said: “Investor education is a must in a marketplace in which the financial products and services available to retail investors continue to evolve and become more complex. Investor behaviour needs to adapt to this ever-changing market, and this requires knowledge and understanding, which regulators, market participants and other interested parties could facilitate. The IOSCO WIW is promoting this collective effort.”
The WIW website www.worldinvestorweek.org provides additional details on the activities taking place during the campaign. Due to the challenges that Covid-19 still poses to jurisdictions, some participants will conduct their WIW-related activities during the weeks of their choice in October and November 2022. Their information is available at the WIW website.
NOTES TO THE EDITORS:
About IOSCO
- IOSCO is the leading international policy forum for securities regulators and is recognized as the global standard setter for securities regulation. The organisation’s membership regulates more than 95% of the world’s securities markets in some 130 jurisdictions, and it continues to expand.
- The IOSCO Board is the governing and standard-setting body of IOSCO and is made up of 34 securities regulators. Mr. Ashley Alder, the Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, is the Chair of the IOSCO Board. The members of the IOSCO Board are the securities regulatory authorities of Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Ontario, Pakistan, Portugal, Quebec, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (both the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). The Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority and the Chair of IOSCO´s Affiliate Members Consultative Committee are also observers.
- The Growth and Emerging Markets (GEM) Committee is the largest committee within IOSCO, representing more than 75% per cent 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 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 focus on risks and vulnerabilities assessments, policy and development work affecting emerging markets, and regulatory capacity building, among others.
- IOSCO aims through its permanent structures:
- to cooperate in developing, implementing and promoting internationally recognized and consistent standards of regulation, oversight and enforcement 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 to assist the development of markets, strengthen market infrastructure and implement appropriate regulation.
