The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has today published a report calling for greater international collaboration and cooperation to combat cross-border scams, greenwashing, misconduct, and fraud.

ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, ‘Scams, misconduct, and harmful practices targeting retail investors do not respect borders. ASIC co-chaired the task force that wrote the report and supports recommendations to strengthen international cooperation to mitigate cross-border misconduct and share surveillance data and intelligence.’

‘In our own domestic experience, we see persistent challenges around the supervision and enforcement of cross-border regulatory issues that cannot be tackled by domestic regulatory bodies alone.’

‘Regulators need effective resources, practices, tools, and techniques to promote consumer protection and market integrity, which is supported through participation in critical multilateral forums such as IOSCO.’

Key findings
The report provides a global point-in-time view on the evolving retail trading environment, and outlines a suite of measures for regulators to consider involving:

supervisory and enforcement issues emerging from cross-border offerings, and the need to enhance cooperation frameworks
conduct and fraud implications emerging from recent crypto asset trading trends
increased greenwashing risk and the need to better identify compliance with climate disclosure standards
impact of social media and finfluencer activity on retail decisions and behaviour, and the need to heighten regulators’ digital presence and strategies
the escalation in unlicensed activity and the surge in self-directed online trading.
This analysis will inform ASIC’s strategic priorities on retail investor harms concerning crypto-assets, sustainable finance, scams and Australia’s design and distribution obligation (DDO) laws.