Securities and Futures Markets: Cross-Border Information Sharing is Improving,but Obstacles Remain

摘要

In a recent International stock swindle, investors in as many as 45 countrieswere alleged to have been defrauded of over $150 million. Regulators operating on their own in each of these countries may not have been able to fully investigate this far-reaching alleged swindle or identify its scope or perpetrators; these regulators needed to share information with their foreign counterparts. Information sharing is one of the best defenses U.S. and foreign regulators have against unscrupulous persons who spread their activities among many countries and make it difficult for any one regulator to investigate fraud or other abusive practices. However, international securities and futures markets still operate under national legal and regulatory structures that can inhibit information sharing. Concerned about whether U.S. regulators and exchanges are able to provide adequate oversight of international market activity, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and finance, House Committee on Energy and Commerce, requested that GAO determine (1) the types of information various nations' securities and futures regulators need to share in order to fulfill their market oversight responsibilities, (2) the extent to which information is currently shared, (3) the types and adequacy of arrangements used for sharing information, (4) whether and what kinds of impediments exist to sharing information and how these can be overcome, and (5) the effectiveness of existing international organizations in addressing issues related to international information sharing.