The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) meeting, attended by capital market supervisory authorities from 23 countries, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC), has been held in Seoul.
The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service announced that the IOSCO C4/SG meetings will take place for three days from June 10 to June 12 at the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) Tower in Yeouido, Seoul.
IOSCO C4 (Committee 4) is one of the eight policy committees under IOSCO. It serves as a forum for discussing matters related to the investigation of unfair trading and information sharing among supervisory authorities. At the SG (Screening Group) meeting, reviews are conducted regarding applications by foreign supervisory agencies to join the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU) and the Enhanced Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (EMMoU).
Lee Yoonsoo, Standing Commissioner of the Securities and Futures Commission, stated in his opening remarks, “In a situation where capital crosses borders in real time, there are limits to responding to financial crimes with only individual countries’ investigations and regulations. Now, capital market supervision must be approached from an international perspective to achieve greater effectiveness.”
He added, “Going forward, we will continue to take the lead in eradicating unfair trading in capital markets and creating a trustworthy market environment by working closely with supervisory authorities in each country.”
Lee Seungwoo, Deputy Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, also emphasized, “I hope that this Seoul C4 and SG meeting will develop into an exemplary case of strengthening cooperation and sharing investigative experience among supervisory authorities,” adding, “I expect this will be an opportunity for supervisory agencies to advance their response to increasingly sophisticated unfair trading.”
Since joining the IOSCO EMMoU in 2019, the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service have continued to exchange information with overseas supervisory authorities regarding unfair trading investigations. In total, there have been 40 cases of information exchange. By country, Japan accounted for the most with 19 cases, followed by the United States (11 cases), Hong Kong (5 cases), China (4 cases), and the United Kingdom (1 case).
Based on such data, the SESC recently imposed a fine on a Korean investor who traded stocks using undisclosed positive information related to new share subscriptions.
Through investigative cooperation, cross-border unfair trading activities have also been detected and addressed. Korean supervisory authorities took action, including filing a complaint with the prosecution, against executives of Company A, based in the United States, for alleged unfair trading such as soliciting investment funds in Korea while spreading false business information and plans to pursue a NASDAQ listing, as well as failing to submit a securities registration statement. The SEC also filed for an injunction against securities law violations, asset freezes, and disgorgement of unjust enrichment against the same company in a U.S. court.
The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service plan to continue strengthening cooperation with overseas supervisory authorities to thoroughly block unfair trading, and to work toward establishing a fair market order and protecting investors.
The financial authorities stated, “The Lee Jaemyung administration has a firm commitment to a ‘One Strike Out’ policy, which removes from the market any participant who commits even a single act of unfair trading such as stock price manipulation.” They added, “We are significantly strengthening the collaboration system and investigative capabilities among domestic related agencies, and are devising improvement measures to impose swift and strict sanctions on violators.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
