Firms, exchanges and associations submitted their comment letters to the US Treasury Department’s initiative to streamline the regulatory structure in the US on 21 November.

What is emerging is a push by various industry sectors for principles-based regulation for the securities industry, matching the same methodology used by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The securities industry currently is guided by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s rules-base mode of regulation.

The Treasury’s comment period is part of its effort to begin overhauling the fragmented, and in...