International securities regulators are stepping up their research into the disruptive potential posed by the development of distributed ledgers, robo-advisors and cybersecurity threats.
Reporting back from a two-day meetup in Madrid last week, the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions - the policy forum for capital markets rule-makers worldwide - singled out the risks from digitisation and emerging technologies as a key focus for research over the coming year.
Last week's meeting was preceded by a series of round tables discussing recent market developments and volatility in world capital markets and, secondly, the challenges and opportunities posed by fintech and - more particularly - distributed ledger technology.
Iosco says the roundtable discussion with leading market analysts ondistributed ledgers, highlighted the potential new financial technologies can have to "improve global market efficiencies, and provide emerging market jurisdictions with the infrastructure needed to further develop their capital markets".
Committing to undertake further study into the impact of blockchain technologies, the Iosco Board also singled out the use and regulation of automated advice tools in securities markets as an important area for future work, and promised more effort in understanding the risks arising from the use of cloud technology.
The meeting also discussed a report on Iosco’s work addressing the challenges of cyber risk and the work of its Growth and Emerging Markets Committee on digitisation and fintech.