SEC And FSA Sign Agreement On Market Oversight

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

22 March 2006

The US Securities and Exchange Commission and the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority last week signed a comprehensive arrangement to increase cooperation in market oversight and supervision.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and UK FSA Chief Executive Officer John Tiner executed the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation, Cooperation and the Exchange of Information Related to the Supervision of Financial Services Firms and Market Oversight at a meeting at SEC headquarters in Washington on Tuesday.

This landmark arrangement will facilitate the exchange of confidential supervisory information currently collected by both regulators.

Chairman Cox announced that:

“This agreement formalizes the already robust collaboration between the SEC and the FSA. Both the SEC and the FSA share a commitment to keeping our markets open, fair, transparent, and sound under constantly changing circumstances. The additional tools for information exchange that we will gain from this arrangement will enhance our mutual ability to oversee the world’s largest securities firms and markets."

"This arrangement also facilitates the SEC’s new role as a consolidated supervisor of globally active US investment banks. The information sharing arrangements we are formalizing today will help insure that the SEC’s supervision of these firms is as effective as possible.”

Among other measures, the arrangement provides for exchange of information about regulated entities and investment banking groups that operate both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

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