The Office of International Affairs (OIA) promotes investor protection, cross-border securities transactions and fair, efficient and transparent markets by advancing international regulatory and enforcement cooperation, promoting the adoption of high regulatory standards worldwide, and formulating technical assistance programs to strengthen the regulatory infrastructure in global financial markets.

These efforts increased significantly after the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. The crisis demonstrated how closely capital markets around the globe are interconnected as well as their fundamental importance to the world's economies. The crisis also demonstrated that facilitating international cooperation and coordination is critical in helping to ensure the effectiveness of financial regulatory reform efforts, to develop high regulatory standards across jurisdictions, and to minimize regulatory gaps.

To this end, OIA works with a global network of securities regulators and law enforcement authorities to facilitate cross-border regulatory compliance and help ensure that international borders are not used to escape detection and prosecution of fraudulent securities activities. Using OIA staff's understanding of international markets and foreign law and regulations, OIA provides the Commission and SEC staff with advice and assistance in international enforcement and regulatory matters.