The SEC continues to establish comprehensive arrangements with foreign regulatory authorities - through both Enforcement Cooperation Arrangements and Supervisory Cooperation Agreements.  The latest Memoranda of Understanding, or "MOUs," are with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Both are part of the SEC's long-term strategy to improve the oversight of regulated entities that operate across national borders.  They each follow on a similar supervisory arrangement that the SEC entered into with the Quebec Autorité des marchés financiers and the Ontario Securities Commission in 2010, which later was expanded. Each will enhance the ability of SEC staff to share information about such regulated entities as investment advisers, investment fund managers, broker-dealers, and credit rating agencies.

• The Cayman Islands is a major offshore financial center and home to large numbers of hedge funds, investment advisers and investment managers that frequently access the U.S. market.
• ESMA is a pan-European Union agency that regulates credit rating agencies and fosters regulatory convergence among European Union securities regulators.

Enforcement v. Supervisory Cooperation Agreements. SEC Enforcement Cooperation Arrangements - which now total partnerships with some 80 separate jurisdictions via bilateral MOUs and a Multilateral MOU under the auspices of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) - detail procedures and mechanisms by which the SEC and its counterparts can collect and share investigatory information where there are suspicions of a violation of either jurisdiction’s securities laws, and after a potential problem has arisen. SEC Supervisory Cooperation Arrangements, in contrast, generally establish mechanisms for continuous and ongoing consultation, cooperation and the exchange of supervisory information related to the oversight of globally active firms and markets.  Such information may include routine supervisory information as well as the types of information regulators need to monitor risk concentrations, identify emerging systemic risks, and better understand a globally-active regulated entity’s compliance culture.  These MOUs also facilitate the ability of the SEC and its counterparts to conduct on-site examinations of registered entities located abroad. While designed to achieve different things, enforcement and supervisory cooperation arrangements are complimentary tools.  Supervisory cooperation involves ongoing sharing of information regarding day-to-day oversight of regulated entities.  Enforcement cooperation MOUs, by contrast, help the Commission collect information abroad that is necessary to help ensure that the SEC’s enforcement program deters violations of the federal securities laws, while also helping to compensate victims of securities fraud when possible. For further details, go to:  [SEC Press Release 12-49, 3/23/12] as well as:

[MOU: Cayman Islands Monetary Authority] [MOU: European Securities and Markets Authority]