Tell It To Al

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Luis Aguilar is a regulator out to regulate.

And for good reason. Some highlights from a speech he gave yesterday:

“Deregulated markets were instrumental in the misallocation of our country’s capital and other scarce resources, which resulted in trillions in mispriced assets, devastated the savings of American families, and resulted in painful levels of unemployment that persists to this day. Just as a few examples . . . American families who had saved for decades — did everything right — could no longer afford to send their children to college. Hardworking men and women entering their retirement years have had to continue working because their retirement nest eggs significantly diminished. Businesses large and small watched their lending costs soar and loan commitments disappear. The negative effects on capital formation in our country were devastating.

“We need the financial services industry as a whole to re-dedicate itself to basic principles — principles of integrity, fair dealing, meaningful disclosures, and good business practices.

“One of the fundamentals of regulation is that regulators must have direct access to information about those we regulate and the activities that they engage in.

“I have repeatedly spoken about the need for the Commission to have direct access to real-time data about the markets and market participants that we regulate, and I will continue to do so until this goal has been reached. Specifically, I have advocated for the Commission to have ongoing, direct access to real-time trading data and current and historical broker-dealer registration data. Currently we need to request this information from third parties.”

Click here to read Aguilar’s speech. And click here to read what I wrote about Aguilar in October.