ISLAMABAD, March 9: A South Asian association of securities regulators is likely to be established soon to coordinate their activities and pave the ground for integration of capital markets in the region.

The possibility of such an arrangement was explored during a recently held meeting of the Asia-Pacific Regional Committee of the International Organization of Securities (IOSCO) held recently in Wellington, New Zealand.

During that meeting, the chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Dr Tariq Hassan, who represented Pakistan in the meeting, met the securities regulators of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, according to an SECP spokesman.

They decided that the SECP chairman and the chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) would prepare the concept paper and institutional framework for the establishment of such an association.

The objective of such an association would be to facilitate harmonisation of regulatory standards in the region as part of the overall aim of promoting the integration of capital markets.

The SECP, he recalled, had been actively pursuing these objectives. Thus in December 2003, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, which set forth a statement of intent of the two regulators to establish a framework for mutual assistance and facilitate the exchange of information between them in order to enforce/ensure compliance with their respective securities and futures laws and regulatory requirements.

The securities regulator of Pakistan has also been encouraging the stock exchanges in Pakistan to enter into similar MoUs with their counterparts in the region.

Accordingly, the three stock exchanges of Pakistan have already jointly signed MoUs with the Colombo and Chittagong stock exchanges to establish a system of mutual assistance and information sharing.