The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is an international network of securities regulators. Although it has no formal status in international law, over the last three decades it has emerged to become the world's central organisation responsible for the coordination of...

The idea that securities regulators should reward persons who ‘blow the whistle' on fraudulent or corrupt conduct is starting to gain some traction around the world. Spurred on by the apparent success of the whistleblower award program administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission...

The conventional view of corporate regulation is that corporations are to be managed for the benefit of their shareholders. The general law and statutory duties of directors and officers reflect this quot;shareholder primacy norm,quot; with duties formulated to prevent directors acting otherwise...

Section 50 of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) confers a wide power on the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) to bring civil action in the name of the company or a class action for shareholders or investors for the recovery of damages for...

Securities regulators protect the integrity of capital markets by detecting, investigating and then prosecuting, insider trading and market manipulation, known collectively as market abuse. The main method of detection of market abuse is surveillance of markets by software designed to identify...

Stock exchanges and trading on them has changed dramatically in the last few decades as markets for securities have fragmented, trading volumes have escalated and the opportunities to trade in different markets and across international borders has increased. These changes to the markets have...

Governments worldwide are increasingly recognizing that assisting the development of start-ups and small to medium enterprises may be critical to fostering job creation and economic growth. As such, there is a concerted effort to rework securities regulation to encourage the funding of these...

In the last few years the US and Canada have suffered low rates of economic growth and associated higher levels of unemployment. These problems seem to have reinvigorated a push by industry, governments and policy makers to consider ways to foster the growth of businesses, and, in particular,...

The global financial crisis has acutely exposed the global nature of the markets for securities and their impact on the world economy. Yet despite some cross-fertilization, the regulation of those markets differs significantly. In the longer term it is likely that governments will now move...