AMF and FINRA Sign MoU on Financial Market Surveillance and Supervision

Richard G. Ketchum, Chairman and CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Chairman of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), signed on 19 October 2009 a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on information-sharing with a view to strengthening and improving cooperation in the surveillance and supervision of the markets under their jurisdictions.

The memorandum establishes a formal basis for cooperation among FINRA and the AMF in order to more effectively conduct their oversight of regulated markets and financial firms.

FINRA is the self-regulatory organisation responsible for regulating and overseeing broker-dealers in the United States and for supervising a number of markets.

Commenting, Jean-Pierre Jouyet said: "I welcome this agreement with FINRA Chairman and CEO Richard G. Ketchum, which strengthens our cooperation with the United States in the field of investigations and market surveillance. Surveillance and transparency are more important than ever and demand close cooperation between regulators".

"We are very pleased to sign this Memorandum of Understanding with the AMF," said Ketchum. "Both FINRA and the AMF share significant common ground in our mission to protect investors and ensure the integrity of capital markets. In today's global environment, international regulatory cooperation is more important than ever. We look forward to a long and productive partnership with the AMF."

The MoU has two main aims:

• organise the transmission of information between authorities regarding market surveillance and investigations into market abuse;
• facilitate the sharing of information on trading by firms coming within the two authorities' respective jurisdictions.

The agreement will also allow the AMF and FINRA to keep each other informed about practices in their markets and about issues concerning financial markets in general.