Website review
| Pages | 388-391 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb025026 |
| Published date | 01 April 1999 |
| Date | 01 April 1999 |
| Author | Martyn Kendrick |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance Volume 7 Number 4
Website review
Martyn Kendrick
Received (in revised form): 27th October, 1999
De Montfort University, Bosworth House, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH;
tel:
0116 255 1551; fax: 0116 251 7548
Journal of Financial Regulation
and Compliance, Vol. 7, No 4,
1999.
pp. 383-392
© Henry Stewart Publications,
1353-1988
INTRODUCTION
This review considers selected websites of
interest to anyone concerned with electro-
nic commerce and its regulation. This is an
area of growing interest within the finan-
cial services industry, as the continuing
developments in technology, such as the
advent and increasing use of the Internet,
multi-media communications and scripted
messages put the existing regulatory frame-
work under immense pressure. In some
cases,
this has lead to an increasingly
strained interpretation of the current legis-
lation as regulators struggle to keep pace
with the constant changes in technology.
A directory detailing the key websites
considered in this and earlier reviews, is set
out at the end of this review.
INTERNATIONAL APPROACH
The International Organisation of
Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
The IOSCO website provides a good start-
ing point for reviewing the international
approach towards the regulation of Inter-
net technology within the financial services
industry. In particular it is worth down-
loading the consultation document (No.
82) 'Securities Activity on the Internet'
produced by the technical committee of
IOSCO in September 1998. This extre-
mely interesting and well-written docu-
ment sets out the findings of its Internet
task force.
The document summarises how the
international explosion in Internet use will
present new challenges for regulators and
self-regulatory organisations (SROs). For
instance, it suggests that electronic commu-
nication and activity may not fit neatly
within the parameters of rules and regula-
tions originally designed for a telephone or
paper-based environment, thus creating
either unnecessary regulatory burdens, or
unintended regulatory gaps. In addition,
the very qualities that make the Internet a
valuable tool for investors and financial ser-
vices provision, may also render it a conve-
nient tool to perpetrate fraud. The Internet,
by providing instantaneous cross-border
communication and interactivity also chal-
lenges traditional notions of jurisdiction.
The document concludes that it is not
the role of IOSCO to provide legal inter-
pretations or set universal standards with
respect to the use of the Internet by the
financial services industry, but that these
issues need to be determined under the
domestic statutory schemes of each national
jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the report does
offer some key principles, recommenda-
tions and guidelines for domestic security
regulators.
Finally the document provides a very
useful annex at the end in which it sets out
a fairly comprehensive list of significant
Internet-related policy statements from
various national regulators from around
the world.
Page 388
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