SEC, FSA Hold Strategic Dialogue

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

18 November 2010

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, Mary L. Schapiro, recently met in London with the chairman of the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority (FSA), Adair Turner, to discuss a number of issues related to the securities markets.

During the SEC-FSA meeting, the agencies shared views regarding the oversight of over-the-counter derivatives trading, high-frequency trading, and the May 6 "Flash Crash", as well as recent regulatory initiatives regarding credit rating agencies and cross-border enforcement information-sharing between the FSA and SEC.

Schapiro and Turner also restated their agencies' commitment to working together to improve regulation and oversight of their securities markets, particularly with regard to globally active regulated firms with a presence in both countries.

Schapiro said: "Both the SEC and FSA are in the process of drafting vital new rules for our own markets. Meetings like this with our UK counterparts at the highest levels give the Commission a better understanding of how similar market concerns are viewed in London. Given the international nature of the recent financial crisis, this exchange of views can only improve the regulatory solutions we develop to these challenging problems."

Turner said, "As regulators, we all now face issues that cross borders and require international coordination. It is important that we are able to find common ground in approaching these issues and this continuing dialogue with the SEC forms a key part of this process."

The SEC and the FSA first signed enforcement information-sharing arrangements in 1986, and then concluded a supervisory information-sharing memorandum of understanding in 2006 in which the two regulators laid out how they would share information relating to the financial health and regulatory compliance of regulated entities operating in both countries.

During a separate meeting, Schapiro and the chief executive of the UK’s Financial Reporting Council, Stephen Haddrill, discussed various matters relating to regulatory reform efforts in the US and Europe. They also covered topics of joint interest such as the oversight of audit firms providing services across borders into the UK and US, the reform of rules governing issuer disclosure and investor access to corporate proxies.

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