COMCEC Capital Markets Regulatory Authorities Conference and Roundtable was held on 16 September 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. The meeting was hosted jointly by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMBT) and the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). Representatives from 13 regulatory authorities of the OIC member states and 4 related institutions, including SESRIC, attended the meeting. The Centre was represented at the Conference and Roundtable by Mr. Nadi Serhan Aydın, Researcher at the Centre.

In line with the decisions by the 25th and 26th Sessions of the COMCEC, the representatives of regulatory bodies reached an agreement on the formation of a separate forum for the capital markets regulatory authorities of the OIC member countries, which would carry on its activities under the name “COMCEC Capital Market Regulators Forum”.

In his opening address to the Conference and Roundtable, Mr. Vedat Akgiray, Chairman of the CMBT, stated that the cooperation at the regulatory level is core to maintaining investor confidence and further drew attention to the diverse nature of OIC capital markets which would cooperation a more challenging goal.

Mr. Hüseyin Erkan, Chairman of the OIC Member States’ Stock Exchanges Forum and Chairman and CEO of the ISE, praised the representatives of the regulatory bodies for their extensive effort to extend the financial cooperation between the member countries by establishing a similar cooperation body among the capital market regulators of the OIC member countries. He also pointed to the huge potential for closer collaboration between the newly established Forum and the two existing task forces of the OIC Member States’ Stock Exchanges Forum, namely, the Task Force for Post-Trade Services and the Task Force for the Promotion, Awareness and Investor Education about Islamic Financial Markets.

Mr. Akgiray was elected unanimously as the chairman of the Forum. Accordingly, CMBT will assume the role of Forum Secretariat. The Forum held preliminary discussions on the establishment of four task forces, namely, the task forces for market development, regulatory capacity building, Islamic finance and financial literacy. The Meeting also featured presentations by representatives of the regulatory authorities of Turkey, Malaysia and Pakistan on the current state of COMCEC member countries capital markets and the impact of global financial crisis on emerging markets. In another presentation on OECD-CMBT initiatives in Middle East, North Africa (MENA) and Eurasia regions, a representative from the OECD Corporate Affairs Division, informed the audience that 31 out of 57 OIC member countries currently participate in OECD activities. He further noted that corporate governance is critical to the development of capital markets and a well-functioning regulatory structure.

A Terms of Reference (ToU) document will be circulated among the regulatory authorities of the OIC member countries to reach a final consensus on the organizational structure of the Forum before the Final Report of the Meeting, including the adopted recommendations and decisions, is submitted to the 27th Session of the COMCEC, which will be held on 17-20 October 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Documents

• Report (English) (French) (Arabic)