Opening Statement before the March 15 Commission Meeting

Good morning. This is an open meeting of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 15th, 2023. I want to welcome members of the public who are listening in.

Before we get to today’s agenda, I want to address the events of the last week in the context of (1) enforcement and (2) market stability.

As to enforcement, as I said over the weekend: Our staff is particularly focused on identifying and prosecuting any form of misconduct that might threaten investors, capital formation, or the markets more broadly. Without speaking to any individual entity or person, we will investigate and bring enforcement actions if we find violations of the federal securities laws.[1]

As to market stability, history is replete with times when tremors starting at one financial institution or corner of the financial system spill out to the broader economy.

When this happens, the American public – bystanders to the highways of finance – inevitably gets hurt.

Lest we forget, eight million Americans lost their jobs, millions of families lost their homes, and small businesses across the country folded as a result of the financial crisis of 2008.

To that end, I think the SEC has a responsibility to help protect for financial stability. That’s why I am so proud of our dedicated staff and this Commission’s focus on resiliency projects.

In today’s meeting, we’ll consider a number of such projects: related to cyber resiliency and updating our rules for systems compliance and integrity of some of the financial system’s key entities.

We earlier made proposals for enhanced resiliency relating to the U.S. Treasury markets, money market funds, open-end funds, private funds, and clearinghouses.

The events of the last week are a reminder of the importance of these resiliency projects for everyday Americans.

Unfortunately, history tells us that events like those of this past week will occur from time to time. Thus, we should do our best to make them less frequent, strengthen the guardrails of finance for when they do occur, and protect the American public.