Commenting of the event, Dr.Al Zaabi, said: “This achievement reflects the outstanding efforts of the SCA and its achievements and excellent performance at the regional and international levels, through its participation in the organizations and committees at the GCC, Arab or international levels. It is also a translation of the international community's appreciation of the position of the United Arab Emirates and its prudent leadership at various levels.”
He added that "this is the first time for the UAE to assume such prestigious position in the IOSCO and to serve as a Vice Chairman of the Organization's Board." He noted that he assumed the post of the Chair of the GEMC after he acted as the Deputy Chair of the GEMC for some time. During his term as a Deputy Chair, many initiatives and proposals were introduced and contributed to attracting the members’ attention to the vital role performed by the SCA towards attaining the goals pursued by the GEMC and the IOSCO. He confirmed that selecting him for the post would boost the performance of the SCA and highlight its initiatives and projects in the area of regulating the international securities markets.”
Dr. Al Zaabi pointed out that: “The SCA has been a forerunner among the regulators who signed the multilateral memorandum of understanding in 2012 which represents a highly significant international recognition that affirms the solidity of the legislative and supervisory frameworks in the UAE financial markets, which consequently reflects positively on the local and foreign corporate and individual investor’s confidence level and enhances the attractiveness of the UAE markets of the foreign investments.”
Earlier in 2018, the CEO of SCA was formally appointed as Co-Chair of the MENA Corporate Governance Working Group at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The SCA has been acting as an ordinary member of the IOSCO since 2003. The IOSCO is an international organization founded in 1983 to bring together international securities regulators. The IOSCO seeks to enhance cooperation between the member supervisory authorities in order to develop the standards of supervising securities markets to maintain fair, transparent, and highly efficient trading, and exchange of information and experiences among the member authorities and seek regulatory standardization.
The IOSCO is a global standard setter for regulating the activities of the securities markets, taking into account the authority of the 38 IOSCO principles, as well as the authority of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB).
Members of the IOSCO include the securities supervisory authorities, the World Bank, the IMF, and several financial markets and different financial and monetary institutions. The IOSCO has more than 200 members, including 128 securities supervisory authorities (ordinary members), 27 international government organizations and other international standard setter authorities, and associate members, and 63 self-regulatory organizations, and securities exchanges and others (affiliate members). The supervisory authorities which are members of the IOSCO supervise and control over 95 percent of the financial markets worldwide.
The IOSCO seeks to boost investor protection and confidence in the integrity of the securities markets through exchange of information and enhancing cooperation in the area of control and enforcement against unsound practices, and in the area of supervising the markets and brokers in the markets. Moreover, the IOSCO works closely with the G20 states and the Financial Stability Board (FSB).
The IOSCO GEMC is a key and operative committee at the IOSCO and its members include the emerging markets. Currently, the GEMC includes 90 members, including the SCA, and 20 associate members from around the world who do not have voting rights. The GEMC represents nearly 75 percent of the membership of the IOSCO which consists of 10 members of the G20. Further, a steering committee of the growth emerging markets (GEM) emerges from the GEMC and it was established to provide guidance and general advice to the GEMC.