SEC Atkins underlines importance of regulatory cooperation

18 March 2008

“We share with the Europeans the realization of the importance of looking at our markets from an international perspective”, Commissioner Paul Atkins said at a mutual funds and investment management conference in Phoenix.

 

“The thoughts of European regulators are increasingly relevant on this side of the Atlantic”, he said and underlined that regulators must facilitate the internationalization of the financial markets. “We share with the Europeans the realization of the importance of looking at our markets from an international perspective”.

 

Pointing to necessary regulatory 'refinements', Atkins noted that “we cannot afford another misstep like Audit Standard 2, the ill-conceived implementation of the internal control documentation requirement of Sarbanes-Oxley section 404 by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board”.

 

“AS2 did so much to damage the reputation and status of the United States as an attractive international financial marketplace”, he said.

 

“We are in the process of exploring ways to allow foreign investors to interact directly with U.S. financial service providers and U.S. investors to interact directly with foreign financial services providers”, he said. “The issue is clearest for broker-dealers and markets. In the discussions of mutual recognition, however, the possibility of allowing foreign investment companies access to the American marketplace has not enjoyed much attention.”

 

“Regulatory cooperation within the U.S. is important as well”, he said and pointed in particular to the attempts to augment SEC disclosure requirements through state enforcement actions.

 

Other issues of his speech concentrated on the discussion about the US ‘Summary Prospectus’ .

 

Full speech

© Graham Bishop