In a speech given last week in Washington, D.C., Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Luis Aguilar acknowledged that the “financial services industry is in crisis,” and added that “the driving principle for any regulatory reform is to re-establish accountability and transparency.”

Aguilar cited a number of steps that, in his personal opinion, could enhance investors' ability to demand transparency and accountability, including:

• Reinvigorating the financial regulatory structure to increase transparency and public accountability to the investor.
• Congressional action to close regulatory loopholes, “including over-the-counter derivatives, hedge funds, and municipal securities,” and further the creation of a “dedicated stream of funding that is adequate to meet the challenges faced by our capital markets today and the guaranteed funding to be able to anticipate the challenges of the future.”
• Congressional restraint in areas that would diminish current investor protections.
• Shifts in SEC policies and practices, including empowerment of commission staff and the expansion of “exam staff by adding individuals with specialized expertise so that the Commission can quickly deploy staff to work in these areas to quickly collect information, identify issues, and assess risks.”

A transcript of Aguilar’s speech is available online.