Regulatory Framework Abroad
A regulatory mechanism, in terms of finance, is the mechanism to regulate the working of the financial system. Its function is to ensure the compliances in terms of regulations of the Central Bank, commercial banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, non-banking financial institutions, exchange houses and official credit institutions. It is also entitled for the supervision of the compliances of these regulations. It inspects and supervises issuers registered in the Public Stock Registry. It supervises the compliances with the dispositions applicable to the Pension Savings System and Public Pension System. More particularly it supervises the administrative functions for Pension Funds, the Public Employee Pension Institute and the Social Security's Disability, Old Age and Death Program.
A regulatory body, in the context of financial markets, is a regulator for ensuring that the financial markets are fair, efficient and transparent. It strives to reduce the systemic risk to protect the investor.
The regulator should aim for:
- Minimizing the financial loss of bank depositors or insurance policy holders or the like.
- Enforcing the relevant/applicable laws.
- Prosecuting the persons involved in market misconduct cases like insider trading.
- Granting licenses to the providers of financial services.
- Protecting the clients through investigating the complaints without any bias.
- A regulator should follow certain principles. The regulator should be:
- Be clear in its responsibilities which ought to be unbiased.
- Operate independently having accountability in the exercise of its powers and functions.
- Adopt clear and consistent regulatory processes.
- Observe the highest professional standards including appropriate standards of confidentiality.
Examples of the important financial regulators regulating the money and capital markets are:
- Federal Bank, USA
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), USA
- Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA), Canada
- Financial Services Authority (FSA), UK
- Authorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), France
- Financial Supervisory Authority, Sweden
- The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), Australia