Two capital markets regulators held out the promise of more streamlined regulation and oversight during a Bipartisan Policy Center event Tuesday.
SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce and CFTC Commissioner Brian D. Quintenz said they are working jointly to better align their agencies' missions and to reduce regulatory duplication.
A key concern raised by Richard H. Baker, president and CEO of the Managed Funds Association, was whether the primary regulator on a particular issue will offer a safe harbor from another regulator's parallel actions. "I am open to the idea," Ms. Peirce said.
Addressing concerns about the extensive amount of amount of information required of asset managers in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Form PF and whether it is being put to good use by regulators, Ms. Peirce said: "I think we can definitely think about paring back the information we require. … We need to think more carefully about what information we are collecting. There should be a purpose for us."
Federal regulators also "need to do a better job" of providing guidance to the regulated community about cryptocurrency regulation, and the SEC should move forward on rule-making for the proposed Regulation Best Interest standard, Ms. Peirce said.
When it comes to applying regulations for swaps dealers to other market participants like pension funds, church plans and local governments, "I think we can make a lot more progress," said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Mr. Quintenz.
