Durbin Meets with Nominee to Head Securities and Exchange Commission

Press Release

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), who chairs the Senate subcommittee that funds the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), met with Mary Schaprio, President-Elect Obama's nominee to head that agency today, in advance of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. Durbin and Schapiro discussed the SEC's oversight of the markets, the potential for future regulatory reform, and the Madoff scandal.

"By any objective measure, the SEC has failed American investors," Durbin said. "Beyond the Madoff scandal, the rating agencies and many key players in the investment community have been left untended and unregulated. Ordinary investors have paid a huge price in their lost savings because of this dereliction."

The SEC's mission is to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation. It oversees more than 12,000 publicly traded companies, over 10,000 investment advisers that manage more than $38 trillion in assets, nearly 1,000 fund complexes, and close to $44 trillion worth of yearly trading on America's stock and option exchanges.

Durbin is Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, the committee that oversees the budget for the SEC. He has been critical of past funding levels for the agency and has worked to provide the agency with increased resources to cope with a rapidly expanding market.

"The strength of the American economy and our financial markets depends on investors' confidence in the financial disclosures and statements released by publicly traded companies," Durbin said.

"Investors expect the SEC to be the vigilant ‘cop on the beat' and we want to be sure they have the resources to do just that."

Schapiro was nominated on December 18, 2008 to head the five-member Securities and Exchange Commission. She is currently the CEO of the Financial Industry Regularity Authority - the largest self-regulatory body for the American securities exchanges. She has also served terms as a member of the SEC and the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

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