Korea Becomes 10th Signatory to EMMoU
Korea has become the 10th signatory to an international arrangement designed to promote cooperation in combating securities and derivatives violations with a cross-border element.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced on Dec. 6 that the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has approved South Korean financial authorities (the FSC and Financial Supervisory Service) as a regular member of the Enhanced Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation and Cooperation and the Exchange of Information (EMMoU).
The EMMoU is an arrangement designed to enable financial regulators to effectively investigate and prosecute securities and derivatives violations by providing a tool for cooperation that is responsive to changes in markets, technology and behaviors.
By becoming a signatory to the EMMoU, Korean financial authorities are qualified for a set of enhanced powers in investigating unfair trade practices. For instance, they can obtain and share audit work papers, communications and other information relating to the audit or review of financial statements including with the assistance of a prosecutor, court or other authority.
Founded in 1983, the IOSCO is comprised of more than 95% of capital market supervising organizations around the world and its office is located in Madrid, Spain. In order to strengthen cooperation among countries in unfair trade investigations in 2016, the IOSCO introduced the EMMoU, which is tougher than the MMoU. Compared with the MMoU, the EMMoU expanded the scope of information exchanged among the signatories, including accounting, the internet, and telecommunication data apart from financial transaction information, and has quicker information requests and more stringent security procedures.
"Korea’s membership to the EMMoU proves its high status in the global capital market," the FSC and the FSS said. “International cooperation with foreign supervisory authorities on unfair trade will be strengthened.”