International strategy, forums and technical assistance
Financial markets and the provision of financial services are increasingly global in nature. It is important for regulators to engage with each other to ensure efficient but robust and sustainable markets, and to develop more effective international approaches to regulation and enforcement.
Through its international activities ASIC seeks to engage with international policy forums, participate in international standard setting and build relationships with foreign regulators. It does so in order to deliver and support ASIC's strategic priorities of confident and informed investors and fair and efficient markets.
ASIC's International team assists in co-ordinating and supporting ASIC's wider international activities. Gerard Fitzpatrick is ASIC's Senior Executive Leader, International.
Key forums
ASIC participates in a number of important international policy forums. It is a signatory to international cooperation agreements including the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding and numerous bilateral memoranda of understanding.
International Organization of Securities Commissions
IOSCO is the international body that brings together the world's securities regulators and is recognized as the global standard setter for the securities sector. IOSCO develops, implements, and promotes adherence to internationally recognized standards for securities regulation. ASIC actively participates in various IOSCO committees and task forces.
International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR)
IFIAR provides a forum for sharing knowledge of the audit market environment and practical experiences in independent audit regulatory activity.
Corporate Registers Forum (CRF)
The CRF is an international not-for-profit organisation for administrators of corporate and securities registers.
ASIC has been on the executive of the CRF since its establishment in 2005.
International Association of Insolvency Regulators (IAIR)
IAIR is an international body that brings together the collective experiences and expertise of government insolvency regulators from jurisdictions around the world. IAIR members have a unique perspective given the role that they play in insolvency systems.
ASIC also contributes to whole-of-government initiatives in relation to the Group of Twenty (G20), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Technical assistance
ASIC provides training and other technical assistance to other securities regulators in the Asia-Pacific region. For example, ASIC contributes speakers to the APEC Financial Regulators Training Initiative (FRTI). This initiative is designed to strengthen financial supervision and regulation in the region by enhancing the analytical and technical capacity of securities regulators and others. It provides a sustainable and efficient training structure for staff of financial supervisory and regulatory agencies and exchanges.
ASIC's focus in providing technical assistance has been with the Indonesian financial services authority, the Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK). This work has involved workshops, seminars, and incoming and outgoing secondments funded under the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development’s Government Partnership Fund.
ASIC aims to provide assistance to help strengthen the OJK's capacity to:
- develop and implement global standards and practices, and
- build a culture of responsive and skill-based surveillance and risk-focused supervision, enabling regulatory effort to be targeted where it can achieve the greatest results, making best use of resources, and drawing on the knowledge of an increasing number of OJK staff with experience of best-practice regulation.