SEC Commissioner Kara M. Stein argued that a data driven world provides accountants with opportunities to "lead and provide new approaches to the traditional disclosure space." She expressed her belief in "certain opportunities in this data-driven world for accountants to lead and provide new approaches to the traditional disclosure space, including by enhancing financial reporting overall, by rethinking certain aspects of audits and by providing investors transparent, straight-forward information about the stability of a corporation." She also emphasized the existence of "new opportunities

In a study titled "Regulating Away Competition: The Effect of Regulation on Entrepreneurship and Employment," Mercatus scholars Diana Thomas and James Bailey confirmed "the hypothesis that regulation inhibits business growth and job creation while protecting larger, existing businesses." The study found that: "A 10% increase in the intensity of regulation leads to a statistically significant 0.5% decrease in overall firm births. There is a statistically significant decrease among births of small firms but no statistically significant effect on births of large firms, confirming the hypothesis

CFTC Chair Timothy G. Massad called for more resources to address a number of "critically important issues" including position limits, algorithmic trading and cybersecurity. He delivered his remarks at the annual meeting of the Beer Institute. Chair Massad stated that the CFTC should be responding more quickly to the concerns of market participants, but noted that without additional resources, "it is difficult for us to do the job that I believe our markets need and the American people deserve." Presented in greater detail in the Delta Strategy Group summary linked below, Chair Massad focused

The CFTC simultaneously filed and settled charges against a registered Futures Commission Merchant ("FCM") for "failing to diligently supervise its officers', employees', and agents' handling of accounts held in the name of a fraudulent foreign currency exchange pool." The CFTC found that despite the FCM's awareness of warning signs that a foreign currency exchange pool acted improperly, it failed to identify or report those warning signs in violation of its own compliance procedures.

Smeeta Ramarathnam was named SEC Deputy Director of Office of Credit Ratings.Formerly Chief of Staff for SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar, Ms. Ramarathnam will assume her new role later this month.