Gensler to Stress ‘Clear Rules of the Road’ at SEC Nomination Hearing
In his prepared testimony, Gensler also says “markets — and technology — are always changing. Our rules have to change along with them."
Gary Gensler, President Joe Biden’s pick to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, plans to tell Senators Tuesday during his nomination hearing that the U.S. markets didn’t become the finest in the world through “happenstance.”
In his prepared remarks, Gensler states that when “the SEC does its job — when there are clear rules of the road and a cop on the beat to enforce them — our economy grows and our nation prospers. But when we take our eyes off the ball — when we fail to root out wrongdoing, or to adapt to new technologies, or to really understand novel financial instruments — things can go very wrong. And when that happens, people get hurt.”
He promises to continue the SEC’s goals of “strengthening transparency and accountability in our markets, so people can invest with confidence, and be protected from fraud and manipulation.”
During his time as former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gensler plans to tell members of the Senate Banking Committee, he and his fellow commissioners “took decisive action to increase transparency and reduce risk in the $400 trillion swaps market.”
Because the “markets — and technology — are always changing. Our rules have to change along with them,” Gensler states.
As a professor at MIT, “I research and teach on the intersection of technology and finance. I believe financial technology can be a powerful force for good,” Gensler says, “but only if we continue to harness the core values of the SEC in service of investors, issuers, and the public.”
Pictured: Gary Gensler. (Photo: Bloomberg)