IOSCO launches World Investor Week 2019 to promote investor education and protection

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) recently launched its third annual World Investor Week (WIW) following its success in previous years at attracting more than 1,000 financial organisations to showcase their initiatives for promoting investor education and protection across the globe. 

From 30 September to 6 October, securities regulators, stock exchanges, international organisations, investor associations and other stakeholders from almost 90 countries are planning to offer an array of activities to increase awareness of investor education and protection in their jurisdictions. Activities range from workshops and conferences to local/national investor education campaigns, games and contests and many of these events will continue throughout the rest of the year. 

In addition to highlighting the importance of investor education and protection, a key objective of the WIW is to foster learning opportunities for investors – a particularly important goal in the current context of rapid technological innovation and increasingly interconnected financial markets. Indeed, this year’s WIW not only seeks to promote the basics of smart investing but also to ensure that retail investors understand the risks associated with online investing, digital assets and initial coin offerings.

There will be a ‘Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy’ ceremony which will be coordinated by the World Federation of Exchanges. These events offer a high-profile opportunity for WFE members to promote their work to improve financial education and literacy in their jurisdictions. These activities also bring stakeholders together to commemorate the progress made in their jurisdictions. More than 30 exchanges and central counterparties worldwide will celebrate opening or closing bell ceremonies during the 2019 WIW. 

To coincide with the launch of the WIW, the IOSCO Board today published the Core Competencies Framework on Financial Literacy to assist members, investor education providers and other stakeholders in their efforts to develop and implement investor education initiatives. The Framework provides guidance to users on the content of investor education programs and indicates which areas could be assessed as part of an evaluation strategy. 

To show the breadth of planned activities for WIW, here is a sampling of events: In Brazil, the 2019 edition of WIW will feature the annual Conference on Behavioural Sciences and Investor Education on 4 October. Schools, colleges and universities throughout Russia will offer online and offline lectures, providing students with basic knowledge on investing and stock market functioning. 

In Japan, the Financial Services Agency will be developing and disseminating practical and supplementary teaching materials for World Investor Week while dispatching specialised lecturers to teacher training courses at universities. In Romania, the Financial Supervisory Authority will organise an Academic Laboratory Program and kick off the Financial Education Program for the economics high schools and the train-the-trainer sessions for pre-university teachers. 

MoneySense, Singapore´s national financial education program, will hold four town halls during the week of 30 September, which will include a daily panel discussion and an interactive platform that enables retail investors to engage directly with industry experts. In Portugal, the CMVM plans to organise a half-day conference on ‘Doing digitalisation the right way’ and an Open Day – Bank branches in the main cities in Portugal where bank managers invite retail investors to have an open conversation with the Portuguese securities market regulator. Saudi Arabia is organising targeted campaigns offering workshops, social media programs and specialised TV programs aimed at raising awareness of the importance of financial literacy.

International groups are also participating in WIW, which is endorsed by the Japanese G20 Presidency. The Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB), together with its 26-member organisations representing 175,000 certified financial planners (CFPs), will celebrate the third World Financial Planning Day on 2 October to complement the activities of WIW. The FPSB´s events focus on debt management, home ownership, retirement and investment planning, to promote financial literacy and encourage consumers to assume more responsibility for their finances.

The International Forum for Investor Education (IFIE) offers a variety of activities in support of WIW that seek to build educational capacity at both a global and regional level. The IFIE Americas Caribbean Working Group – representing 16 jurisdictions across the Caribbean – will focus on the protection of financial markets by raising awareness and understanding of financial technology via a Caribbean Fintech Pledge Initiative. The project will cover virtual and digital currencies and other assets that are gaining popularity among investors. 

IOSCO Board Chair and Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission Chief Executive Officer Ashley Alder said, “The global scale of World Investor Week and the encouraging collaboration between IOSCO members and their stakeholders in conducting these activities demonstrates IOSCO’s strong commitment to investor education and protection.” 

IOSCO Secretary General Paul Andrews said, “IOSCO welcomes this third iteration of World Investor Week as evidence that this annual event is gaining significant momentum to protect investors and prepare them for dealing with the challenges of increasingly interconnected and digitalised capital markets.”

The dedicated campaign website www.worldinvestorweek.org provides details on the various participating authorities and the international organisations supporting this effort.

IOSCO is the leading international policy forum for securities regulators and is recognised as the global standard setter for securities regulation. The organisation’s membership regulates more than 95% of the world’s securities markets in more than 115 jurisdictions and it continues to expand.

The IOSCO Board is the governing and standard-setting body of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and is made up of 34 securities regulators. Ashley Alder, the Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, is the Chair of the IOSCO Board. 

The members of the IOSCO Board are the securities regulatory authorities of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Ontario, Pakistan, Panama, Portugal, Quebec, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America (both the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and US Securities and Exchange Commission). 

The Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority and the Chair of IOSCO´s Affiliate Members Consultative Committee are also observers. The Growth and Emerging Markets (GEM) Committee is the largest committee within IOSCO, representing close to 80% of the IOSCO membership, including 11 of the G20 members. Dr. Obaid Al Zaabi, Chief Executive Officer, Securities and Commodities Authority, United Arab Emirates, is the Chair of the GEM Committee. 

The committee brings members from growth and emerging markets together and communicates members’ views and facilitates their contribution across IOSCO and at other global regulatory discussions. The GEM Committee’s strategic priorities are focused, among others, on risks and vulnerabilities assessments, policy and development work affecting emerging markets, and regulatory capacity building. 

IOSCO aims through its permanent structures: to cooperate in developing, implementing and promoting adherence to internationally recognised and consistent standards of regulation, oversight and enforcement in order to protect investors, maintain fair, efficient and transparent markets, and seek to address systemic risks; to enhance investor protection and promote investor confidence in the integrity of securities markets, through strengthened information exchange and cooperation in enforcement against misconduct and in supervision of markets and market intermediaries; and to exchange information at both global and regional levels on their respective experiences in order to assist the development of markets, strengthen market infrastructure and implement appropriate regulation.