IOSCO was created in 1983, when 11 securities regulatory agencies from North and South America agreed to build their inter-American regional association into an international cooperative body. A year later, securities regulators from France, Indonesia, Korea and the United Kingdom become the first non-American agencies to join the new organization. In July 1986, IOSCO held its annual conference in Paris, the first outside the Americas and where members agreed to create a permanent General Secretariat.