Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and French market regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) have come to an agreement to promote fair and transparent capital markets in the two countries.

Announcing the Terms of a Regulatory Dialogue for cooperation with AMF, SEBI said in a statement Thursday that this agreement comes in the wake of a similar arrangement it had entered into with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the US in early January.

SEBI chairman M. Damodaran and AMF chairman Michael Prada elaborated the terms, establishing the structure and agenda of cooperation between the two authorities going forward in Amsterdam on Feb 5.

Damodaran said, "The increased cooperation between the AMF and SEBI is significant in the context of the enhanced presence of the emerging markets.

"This would enable greater focus on investor protection and also enable greater cooperation of the industry in the two jurisdictions to promote capital formation and improved cooperation in cross-border securities enforcement matters."

The agreement of the mutual exchange of information on each other's regulatory systems would take place within the framework of international cooperation especially under the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MmoU) of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).