The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has published its Assessment Committee’s Thematic Review of the Adoption of the Principles set forth in IOSCO’s Report: Recommendations Regarding the Protection of Client Assets (the Principles).
The thematic review identifies the implementation progress of 38 IOSCO members from 36 jurisdictions in adopting legislation, regulation and other policies in relation to intermediaries holding client assets addressed by the Principles for the protection of client assets.
The review reports on the status of adoption measures taken by participating jurisdictions and finds that a majority have generally adopted a client asset protection regime described by the Principles.
Implementation progress varied by jurisdiction and across the eight Principles. By jurisdiction, progress was most advanced in the EU member jurisdictions and North America. In some other regions, including Latin America, implementation progress was less advanced. The most implemented Principles were 2, 7 and 8 on Statements of Accounts, Regulators’ Oversight of Compliance, and Information on Foreign Jurisdictions, respectively. In contrast, Principle 3 on Arrangements to Safeguard Clients Assets was the least implemented.
The report includes a detailed discussion of implementation on a Principle-by-Principle basis and also sets out overarching themes and describes differences in approaches and adoption measures taken by participating jurisdictions under each of the eight Principles.
The review was a desk-based exercise, using responses provided by jurisdictions to a self-assessment questionnaire. This thematic review was conducted by a Review Team of members nominated by member organizations from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa, Italy (Consob), the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the IOSCO General Secretariat. The Review Team was chaired by Mr. George Lavdas of the US SEC. The team members collectively brought a broad range of knowledge and practical expertise to the review exercise.