SIFMA Reviews Market and Regulatory Developments

SIFMA summarized financial market and regulatory developments in 2024 and areas of focus for 2025.

At its 2025 State of the Industry Briefing, SIFMA highlighted "impressive" returns in equities and how the markets were able to cope with "elevated volatility related to not just FOMC meetings but also the unwinding of the carry trade, heightened geopolitical tensions, poor tech stock earnings, the hurricane aftermath – which really equates back to economic data – and pre-election jitters." SIFMA also highlighted that it is the third year in a row of growth in equity issuance, though these numbers are just returning to pre-Covid figures. In the fixed income markets, SIFMA reported there was over 30% growth, YOY, in Treasury issuance, corporate bond issuance and municipal bond issuance.

On regulatory policy, SIFMA said that the transition to a T+1 settlement cycle was "the biggest event for markets in 2024." 

Ken Bentsen, SIFMA President and CEO, also remarked on the SEC's "prolific rulemaking agenda," stating that "many major rules we cared about were modified or did not proceed." He noted that the new Administration has already paused approximately 20 pending SEC rules. Mr. Bentsen identified a broad regulatory agenda going forward focusing on "the Consolidated Audit Trail, Equity Market Structure, One-Minute Trading Reporting, Rule 15c2-11, SAB Rul 121," and "cybersecurity, e-delivery, the DOL Fiduciary Rule, senior investor protection and bank control rules." He also said that SIFMA would continue its work on "the Regulated Settlement Network, an industry proof-of-concept that has demonstrated use of shared ledger technology to upgrade liquidity management and financing for domestic users of U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury securities."