The board of International Organisation of Securities Commissions has commenced a public awareness on addressing possible conflicts of interest in the debt market. The initiative would also address other related risks associated with the role of intermediaries in the market.
IOSCO explained that if the risks were not addressed, it could wane the confidence of investors and undermine debt markets as an effective vehicle for issuers to raise funding.
It identified three key aspects of the debt raising process, including pricing of debt securities and risk management transactions, quality of available information to investors and allocations of debt securities as areas prone to the risk associated with market intermediaries.
“The guidance was the second part of a two-stage project on conflicts of interest in capital raising with the first stage focused on the equity capital raising process, published in September 2018.
[READ MORE: How the CBN’s OMO restriction is affecting the market)
“Our vision is to continually bring regulators together to cooperate in developing, implementing and promoting internationally recognized and consistent standards of regulation, oversight and enforcement. This is to to protect investors, maintain fair, efficient and transparent markets, and seek to address systemic risks,” The Nation reported.
The mission of the IOSCO is 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.
The body is also saddled with the responsibility of promoting information exchange both at the global and regional levels on regulators’ experiences to assist the development of markets, strengthen market infrastructure and implement appropriate regulation.
