According to one senior SEC official at the time, by passing the law, Congress said to the SEC:
“here is all you need, now go negotiate agreements and implement them yourself!”
1990s alone, the SEC negotiated and signed almost thirty additional MoUs with foreign
regulatory authorities. Following the SEC’s lead, by the end of the decade, a total of over 250
MoUs had been concluded between securities regulators around the world, firmly
institutionalizing cooperation in the transgovernmental mode.
The second pillar of international regulatory cooperation in the industry has been the
coordination of a range of rules, regulations, and standards among securities regulators within
IOSCO. Having grown out of a “talk shop” for securities regulators of the Americas, IOSCO –
with considerable SEC support – has become the leading forum for cooperation among securities
To accommodate the diversity of domestic
regulatory regimes, any regulatory authority of a jurisdiction – be it an independent regulatory
agency, a stock exchange, a self-regulatory association of securities dealers, or a ministry – can
join. The majority of members, however, are independent regulatory agencies such as the SEC,
making IOSCO a clear instance of what Slaughter calls a “Transgovernmental Regulatory
Organization” (Slaughter 2000).
Most of IOSCO’s work has been fairly uncontroversial.
on capital adequacy standards for securities firms has been its only significant setback (Zaring
24
These changes were enacted as part of the Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act of 1988 and
through the International Securities Enforcement Cooperation Act of 1990.
25
Interview with former SEC official, 14 January 2002.
26
See “Watchdogs To Bark In Tune,” Financial Times 21 July 1986, Sec. I, p. 16. A list of IOSCO’s current
27
It has adopted a “model MoU” to help members conclude agreements. Its working groups have developed a large
number of standards and best practice solutions that have become international regulatory benchmarks. It conducts
28