Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation

This document sets out three objectives and thirty principles upon which the regulation of securities markets is based (September 1998).

The paper is divided into three parts. Part I provides an introduction to the paper and a statement of the objectives and the principles of securities regulation. There is a brief discussion of each of the objectives. Part II describes the desirable attributes of a regulator and the potential role of self-regulatory organizations. It also considers the enforcement and market oversight work of the regulator and the need for close cooperation between regulators. Part III considers the practical implications of the objectives in securities regulation with particular reference to issuers, collective investment schemes, market intermediaries, secondary trading and the clearance and settlement of transactions. Each substantive section in Parts II and III includes a boxed subsection that provides a summary list of the principles to be addressed in giving effect to the objectives.