The US Treasury Department’s long-awaited release of its “Blueprint for Financial Regulatory Reform” which included a proposed merger of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has raised the debate a notch higher.
The long-awaited report released on March 31 by US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, advocated a slew of regulatory reforms that included banking regulation and greater regulatory powers for the US Federal Reserve Bank.
A merger of the SEC and CFTC fell under medium and long-term proposals that could take anywhere from two to eight years. Market participants had differing views, which ranged from calls for careful reorganisation to outright rejection of the idea.
“The competing issues here range from over-regulation where the US financial services players – whether they be banks, hedge fund managers,...