Luis A. Aguilar is a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This post is based on Commissioner Aguilar’s remarks at the 2014 “SEC Speaks” Conference; the full text, including footnotes, is available here. The views expressed in the post are those of Commissioner Aguilar and do not necessarily reflect those of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the other Commissioners, or the Staff.
I am honored to be here today [February 21, 2014]. This is the sixth time that I have spoken at “SEC Speaks” as a Commissioner. Much has changed since my first “SEC Speaks” in February 2009. At that time, we were in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Among other things, Lehman Brothers had recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, The Reserve Primary Money Market Fund had “broken the buck,” and the U.S. Government had just bailed out insurance giant AIG. In addition, the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme had come to light just a few months earlier, further shaking investor confidence in the capital markets.
These and other events made it clear that the SEC had much to do to become a more effective regulator and to enhance its protection of investors. It was also clear that the agency itself had to undergo significant change. As a result, in my 2009 remarks at “SEC Speaks,” I highlighted a number of steps that Congress and the SEC should take to close regulatory loopholes. These regulatory gaps included a lack of appropriate regulation in the areas of over-the-counter derivatives, hedge funds, and municipal securities—areas that Congress subsequently addressed in the Dodd-Frank Act.
