Jay Clayton is Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This post is based on Chairman Clayton’s recent remarks to the SEC Investor Advisory Committee, available here. The views expressed in this post are those of Mr. Clayton and do not necessarily reflect those of the Securities and Exchange Commission or its staff.
Thank you, Anne [Sheehan]. Good morning everyone, and I want to extend a special welcome to our new commissioner, Allison Lee.
I am interested in today’s discussion. I understand the Committee first will be talking about the SEC approach to regulation in areas where competition may be limited. Competition is important to the functioning of our capital markets and, over the years, some of the Commission’s most effective actions have fostered competition.
Personally, I often think of the work of the Commission under Chairman Levitt, where the elimination of opacity in our trading markets fostered competition which, in turn, brought down transactions costs for both institutional and Main Street investors and enhanced price discovery and other market functions. [1]