South Africa has taken centre stage at the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (Iosco) when the Financial Services Board’s (FSB) chief executive, Jeff van Rooyen, was elected vice-chairman of the Iosco’s executive committee at a recent conference in Istanbul, Turkey.

The chairman of Portugal’s Comisissã do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários, Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, was re-elected chairman of the executive committee.

Iosco is the representative body of the world’s securities and futures regulators. Van Rooyen said he had beaten contenders from first world economies. “This proves the high esteem South Africa’s securities regulation is regarded world-wide.”

At the conference the FSB and the Commissione Nazionale Per Le Società E La Borsa of Italy signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) on the exchange of information for co-operation and consultation. This brings the total number of MOUs between the FSB and other jurisdictions to 35.

Participants from 85 jurisdictions attended the seminar which had as its theme, “Globalisation: opportunities and challenges”

The meeting provided a forum for securities regulators and industry participants to consider fundamental issues relating to the increasing provision of financial services on a cross-border basis and the associated international capital flows.

They also considered issues that were of paramount concern following 11 September 2001 and recent international significant corporate failures.

In a communiqué, Iosco said it “is committed to facilitating dialogue among international securities commissions that will help them in responding to the issues raised by these events and fashioning robust regulatory regimes.”

The chairman of Turkey’s capital markets board, Dr Doğan Cansizlar, said the more competitive complex financial environment gave rise to new risks for firms, markets and regulators.

“To deal with these risks, regulatory authorities from all jurisdictions need to develop high level standards for information sharing”

Regarding the optimal policy approach for emerging markets to address globalisation, Cansizlar said: “To overcome the fragility of local financial markets we must undertake reforms that will restructure the banking and financial sectors, operate under rules of genuine transparency and reinforce an institutional framework that supports open markets.”