Commissioner Peirce has become the voice of "liberalism" (in the very, very old-fashioned sense of the word): belief in limited government, government respecting the rights and abilities of individuals to make decisions, and government agencies not stretching the bounds of their authority to accomplish what officials decide is "good policy." Note Commissioner Peirce's views (and wit) in before the Cato Institute's FinTech Unbound Conference (summarized ). At a time when so many call for the…

There is a lot here, quite literally; it's long as speeches go, and it covers a lot of ground. Bottom line, the Commissioner believes that data is important, technology is important, and privacy is important. The Commissioner believes that the SEC should adopt more rules on these issues. But the question is what rules and to what end? For example, the suggestion that a financial market intermediary should inform its customers of a data breach seems reasonable; such notice may allow…

Market participants should be aware that while Chair Giancarlo is, in many respects, advocating for less U.S. regulation, and more deferences to home country regulators, he is not advocating for a deregulatory approach. In fact, in a number of regards, he would expand the scope of U.S. swaps regulation, perhaps most significantly as to swaps that are "arranged, negotiated or executed" in the United States by non-U.S. swap dealers. It is not clear what additional steps he would take…

While the SEC talks the talk as to facilitating innovation, walking the walk is far more difficult. ETFs, for example, have become a significant product in the financial markets, and yet the SEC is only now considering a rule to routinize their issuance. As to cryptocurrency funds, one really has to question whether the SEC wants them to go forward, or is hoping that interest in the product is a bubble that will pop before the SEC is pushed to act. Compare with .