International Securities & Commodities Alerts Network

What is IOSCO? 
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is the global association of national securities and financial market supervisory authorities. It is made up of supervisory authorities from over 100 countries. IOSCO's aim is to promote stable, transparent and fair financial markets and to strengthen investor protection internationally. IOSCO acts as a coordination and information platform between the supervisory authorities and sets global standards for financial market regulation.

What is I-SCAN? 
I-SCAN (International Securities & Commodities Alerts Network) is a publicly accessible information service provided by IOSCO. I-SCAN bundles alerts from financial supervisory authorities around the world and makes them centrally accessible. The data comes directly from official supervisory bodies and concerns, among other things: unlicensed or fraudulent financial providers dubious online platforms suspicious investment offers companies or persons that national authorities explicitly warn against I-SCAN itself does not carry out any assessments, but makes the collected warnings available in a transparent manner.

Why is I-SCAN important for consumers? 
I-SCAN offers consumers low-threshold access to reliable warning information that is otherwise often only available in scattered form on the websites of individual national supervisory authorities. In particular, the service helps to

• detect investment fraud at an early stage,
• check offers that are based abroad or operate internationally,
• protect against losses caused by rogue financial service providers,
• make informed decisions before investing money.

Especially in times of increasing online investments, social media advertising for financial products and international platform models, I-SCAN is an important tool for self-provision.

A building block for more transparency and self-protection 
I-SCAN does not replace individual advice and does not provide investment recommendations. However, as a central warning and information source, the service supplements existing consumer information and strengthens transparency on the financial markets. Consumers are thus given a tool to better assess risks and take warning signals seriously - before damage occurs.

Data Source: IOSCO | I-SCAN