The International Organization of Securities Commissions’ Technical Committee has set up a trio of task forces to tackle short selling, unregulated financial markets and products, and unregulated financial entities, the global regulator announced Tuesday.

The short selling task force will work to eliminate gaps in various regulatory approaches to naked short selling, including delivery requirements and disclosure of short positions. It will also examine how to minimize adverse impacts on legitimate securities lending, hedging and other types of transactions that are critical to capital formation and to reducing market volatility. The group will be chaired by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

The group looking at unregulated financial markets and products will examine ways to introduce greater transparency and oversight to unregulated market segments, such as OTC markets for derivatives and other structured financial products. It will be co-chaired by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Autorité de Marché Financiers of France.

The unregulated financial entities task force will examine issues surrounding unregulated entities such as hedge funds, including the development of recommended regulatory approaches to mitigate risks associated with their trading and traditional opacity. It will be chaired by the CONSOB of Italy and the UK’s Financial Services Authority.

The task forces will present their reports at the next Technical Committee meeting in February 2009 and this will be input into the next G-20 summit in spring 2009.