International equity markets are increasingly but not perfectly integrated. Securities law, notably rules pertaining to the timely disclosure of information and the reduction of information asymmetry between firms and their shareholders, diverge across countries. It is believed this diversity of regulatory regimes is a cause of segmentation across equity markets. It remains to be seen how market participants are able to assess the value of different regulatory regimes in terms of risk and returns. Nevertheless, harmonisation of national regulatory regimes through active international co-operation is the main approach to curb this regulatory diversity and lead to market integration. On the other hand, some authors suggest regulatory competition between markets will eventually lead to a de facto harmonisation of law. This dissertation addresses the soundness regulatory co-operation and examines the perspective of convergence of regulatory regimes and financial systems as a result of the increasing integration of financial markets.