The Securities Commission Malaysia ( SC ) has signed the International Organization of Securities Commission's ( Iosco ) Enhanced Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation and Cooperation and the Exchange of Information ( EMMoU ), which allows its signatories to avail themselves of the latest forms of cross-border assistance to increase effectiveness of investigation and enforcement.

The group is the umbrella group for the world’s capital market regulators. The SC, Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority and Spain’s Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores signed the agreement at the group’s annual meeting in Doha, joining 27 other Iosco members that are already signatories of the EMMoU.

Ioscos’s first multilateral memorandum of understanding ( MMoU ) established a framework for international information-sharing among securities and derivatives regulators to facilitate cross-border enforcement. The SC became a signatory in May 2007 and has since actively and successfully collaborated with other signatories under the MMoU framework. 

In addition, the SC signed the Iosco Asia-Pacific Regional Committee’s Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding for Supervisory Cooperation in October 2022, which establishes a formal framework for regional supervisory cooperation among capital market regulators.

The EMMoU has expanded powers abbreviated as ACFIT, which includes the ability to obtain audit papers, compel attendance for testimony, freeze assets, and obtain internet service provider and telephone records. 

“This EMMoU significantly underscores our commitment towards maintaining market integrity and safeguarding investor interests,” says Mohammad Faiz Azmi, the SC’s chairman. “It also demonstrates our unwavering support on international enforcement cooperation. This is very timely as the increasingly interconnected nature of global financial markets necessitates international cooperation to address issues such as securities fraud.”