Corporate Governance

Mary Schapiro and the Confirmation Hearings

By J. Robert Brown

Mary Schapiro went before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday.  In her written testimony, she made a number of pledges.  These included reinvigoration of the enforcement process, reengagement with the investor community, and structural reform.  In her own words:

• First and foremost, if confirmed as Chairman, I will move aggressively to reinvigorate enforcement at the SEC. With investor confidence shaken, it is imperative that the SEC be given the resources and the support it needs to investigate and go after those who cut corners, cheat investors, and break the law. As the first SEC Chairman, Joseph Kennedy, told the nation 75 years ago in explaining the agency’s role, “The Commission will make war without quarter on any who sell securities by fraud or misrepresentation.”
• Second, I want to re-engage the SEC with the people we serve, namely, investors. The investor community – from the largest pension fund to the family who has scrimped and saved in their 401(k) or 529 plan – needs to feel that they have someone on their side, that they can go to the SEC for advice, to seek redress, or to have their opinions heard.
• Third, as I work to deepen the SEC’s commitment to investor protection, transparency, accountability, and disclosure, I also want to ensure these commitments are preserved in any regulatory overhaul that may be undertaken.

The Q&A from the Committee looks like it hardly laid a glove on her.  She also took issue with the article in the Wall Street Journal accusing her of regulatory light.  The confirmation vote is not yet scheduled. 

Full post as published by The Race to the Bottom on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).