Luis A. Aguilar is a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This post is based on Commissioner Aguilar’s recent public statement; 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 started my tenure as an SEC Commissioner in the late summer of 2008, only a few weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial turmoil that followed, and only a few months before one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history—the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme—was exposed. Beyond their obviously substantial impact on the capital markets and the greater economy, these historical events demonstrated that the Commission needed to change and adapt if it was to continue to be an effective regulator. Indeed, in late 2008 and in 2009, the continuing existence of the Commission was a matter of serious speculation. Thus, whether by coincidence or circumstance—some would say a fate of timing—it is not surprising that my tenure has corresponded with one of the most transformational periods in the SEC’s august history.
