Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Kathleen, for your kind comments. And special thanks to you and your colleagues in the Office of International Affairs for organizing what has become one of our most anticipated events of the year.

As always, I must begin with the customary disclaimer that the views I express here are my own as Chairman and not necessarily those of the SEC as an institution or of the other Commissioners.

But today, I must also note a stroke of serendipity. Thirty-five years ago to the day, a group of securities regulators from around the globe assembled here at the SEC for our inaugural Institute. You may know that my tenure as Chairman is actually my third term of employment at the SEC. So I know something about that first Institute in 1991 because, as an advisor to then-Chairman Richard Breeden, I had the privilege of helping to organize it. In fact, we had no budget back in those days, so it fell on me to buy and bring big urns of coffee for the delegates! So, one could say that I am a personal investor in the International Institute.

(more…)