I strongly support the Commission’s effort to evaluate ways to improve our credit ratings system. Effective oversight of Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (“NRSROs”) is critical to ensuring accurate ratings and promoting investor confidence.

As an SEC Commissioner, I have focused singularly on how the SEC can best serve the needs of investors. It is clear that the role played by credit rating agencies can have an impact on the integrity of our markets and investor confidence. [1]

Today’s roundtable and the Commission’s December 2012 Report to Congress on Assigned Credit Ratings are direct outgrowths of industry practices that permitted inaccurate ratings to undermine the securities market and the integrity of the credit ratings industry. [2]

…continue reading: Addressing Conflicts of Interest in the Credit Ratings Industry

Throughout my tenure as an SEC Commissioner, I have spoken out repeatedly on the subject of diversity – and the benefits it can bring to our economy. I strongly believe in the importance of diversity and inclusion. I continue to be deeply concerned with the lack of significant progress in the recruitment, retention, and promotion of women and persons of color – whether in corporate boardrooms, Wall Street, or at my own agency, the SEC.

Today, although much of what I will say applies equally to other forms of diversity such as race and ethnicity, I will focus my remarks on the important issue of gender diversity in corporate America – particularly:

• The wealth of talent and positive impact of gender diversity;
• The dismal lack of progress in increasing gender diversity on corporate boards; and
• Improving disclosures about diversity, or the lack thereof.

…continue reading: Merely Cracking the Glass Ceiling is Not Enough

Chairman McHenry, Ranking Member Green, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Sections 165 and 121 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). Our testimony will focus on the FDIC’s role and progress in implementing Section 165, including the resolution plan requirements and the requirements for stress testing by certain financial institutions.

Section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act

Resolution Plans

Under the Dodd-Frank Act, bankruptcy is the preferred resolution framework in the event of a systemic financial company’s failure. To make this prospect achievable, Title I of the Dodd-Frank Act requires that all large, systemic financial companies prepare resolution plans, or “living wills”, to demonstrate how the company would be resolved in a rapid and orderly manner under the Bankruptcy Code in the event of the company’s material financial distress or failure. This requirement enables both the firm and the firm’s regulators to understand and address the parts of the business that could create systemic consequences in a bankruptcy.

The FDIC intends to make the living will process under Title I of the Dodd-Frank Act both timely and meaningful. The living will process is a necessary and significant tool in ensuring that large financial institutions can be resolved through the bankruptcy system.

…continue reading: Examining the Application of Title I of the Dodd-Frank Act

I am sure many of you are looking forward to your well-earned celebrations after today’s commencement exercises, so I will heed the advice that President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to speechmakers: “Be sincere, be brief and be seated.”

Perhaps the most challenging part of delivering a commencement speech is the realization that whatever one says will soon be forgotten. Frankly, my memory of the commencement speech at my own graduation is a bit hazy. So today I will ask you to remember just two things: First, the challenges you will face in life – and there will be many – are just new opportunities to learn and further your education. And second, it is always better to do the right thing, even if that may seem the harder choice.

Commencement is a good time for looking back, as well as for looking forward. When I graduated from Georgia Southern during the last century – well, 1976 – our school was called Georgia Southern College. The school only had about 6,000 students, mostly from the Southeast, and there was no football team. Today, Georgia Southern is a major university with more than 20,000 students coming from almost all 50 states and over 80 countries. And the Eagles will soon be dominating the Sun-Belt Conference.

…continue reading: Preparing for Challenges and Opportunities

It should rapidly become clear that my remarks belong only to me because I will be talking about the role of the SEC in an increasingly global financial and regulatory system from the viewpoint of a Chair on Day 18 of her tenure. Already, I find myself emphasizing to some outside the agency that the international aspect of the SEC’s role is not a distraction from our important core domestic duties. Rather, that role must be understood in order to fully appreciate the agency’s whole mission – to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.

And it’s how we’re furthering that mission through our international efforts that I will speak about today.

…continue reading: Regulation in a Global Financial System

The staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission” or “SEC”) is planning to hold an SRO Outreach Conference (the “Conference”) this month. In anticipation of the Conference, I would like to address the challenges faced by self-regulatory organizations (“SROs”) as a result of the significant changes that the securities markets have undergone in the last decade, and the need for robust Commission oversight of SRO activities to enhance investor protection, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.

The roles of SROs have a long tradition in our securities markets. As a practitioner in the securities industry for over 30 years, I’ve interacted with SROs as a member of the private sector as well as a Commissioner. I fully appreciate their role in the regulation of our marketplace by setting standards, conducting examinations, and enforcing rules among their members.

…continue reading: The Need for Robust SEC Oversight of SROs

Today [May 1, 2013], the Commission considers issuing a release proposing rules and interpretive guidance applicable to certain market intermediaries, participants, clearing agencies, data repositories, and trade execution facilities that are involved in cross-border transactions of security-based swaps. The proposed release is over 1,000 pages, contains over 2,000 footnotes, and requests comments on more than 630 questions with many subparts. Although the questions posed are many, they are intended to be balanced and fair to solicit views from all sides. This is a welcome approach, because it contributes to a healthy debate and dialogue that is vital to the Commission’s processes.

Today, the Commission also votes to reopen the comment period on the various outstanding rulemaking releases and policy statement concerning security-based swaps and market participants to allow the public additional time to analyze and provide comments in light of our cross-border release.

The length of the cross-border release and the reopening of the comment periods reflect the complexity and importance of the issues involved in securities-based swap transactions. In issuing today’s proposal and asking for comments on the Commission’s proposed approach to regulating the securities-based swap market, the Commission recognizes the interactions among many important rules in this area. It is important, therefore, that our rules avoid gaps and loopholes, and that they work together to provide the needed transparency, accountability, and protection to our economy, the markets, and, most importantly, to investors.

…continue reading: Proposed Rules for Global Derivatives Market

As you know, over the past couple of years, together with the board members and staff of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, I have been working to enhance the reliability of the external audit function and its usefulness to U.S. capital markets.

I will start off with an overview of some of the more significant issues confronting the audit profession. And then I’d like to open a more interactive discussion.

I. Corporate Governance Has Evolved to Suit the Needs of Capital Markets.

I have known many of you for years. I have watched and admired how you have navigated the many changes we have seen in both the energy industry and corporate governance.

Many of us have gained significantly more experience than we expected in identifying, addressing and preventing future threats to corporate success, such as differences in cultural expectations and business practices around the world and at home. Enron had a profound effect on Houston.

As this morning’s discussion demonstrated, you recognize that your work is never done. There is no perfect governance regime for all time.

…continue reading: Challenges Facing the Audit Profession and PCAOB Initiatives

First, let me thank you all for taking part in today’s program. Events like this are an invaluable tool for regulators and market participants alike — not least of all because we get to see who the early frontrunners are for the next America’s Funniest Compliance Officer contest. As I’m sure you all know, that’s a real contest that was last held in 2011, although, given that there were only a handful of contestants who turned out to compete, maybe it’s more likely that none of you knew. In case you missed it, the winner brought down the house with a joke about a priest, an Irishman, a Frenchman and Rule 15a-6. It was hysterical — not Reg. M hysterical, but still hysterical.

All joking aside, it is essential that we as regulators and you as compliance officials continue to engage in this type of open dialogue and coordination to promote a robust culture of compliance across the securities industry. Indeed, your work is key to enhancing the Commission’s ability to protect investors and ensure that the markets in which they put their capital to work remain fair and efficient, a result which is in all of our best interests.

…continue reading: Challenges Facing Compliance Officers

Today at the SEC and in government agencies around the world, regulators are shaping the rules that will govern the way over-the-counter derivatives are transacted. It’s a crucial task given the magnitude and importance of this market to the international financial system.

In the process, all of us are grappling with the fact that these transactions rarely respect national boundaries. They are complex transactions that routinely cross borders, and are potentially subject to multiple sets of rules.

To ensure our regimes work effectively, we need to have a common sense, flexible approach to the cross-border regulation of derivatives.

…continue reading: Regulation of Cross-Border OTC Derivatives Activities: Finding the Middle Ground