Enhancing Investor Protection and the Regulation of Securities Markets—Part Ii
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ENHANCING INVESTOR PROTECTION AND THE REGULATION OF SECURITIES MARKETS—PART II S. HRG. 111–144 ENHANCING INVESTOR PROTECTION AND THE REGULATION OF SECURITIES MARKETS—PART II HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON FURTHER EXAMINING WHAT WENT WRONG IN THE SECURITIES MARKETS, HOW WE CAN PREVENT THE PRACTICES THAT LED TO OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM PROBLEMS, AND HOW TO PROTECT INVESTORS MARCH 26, 2009 Printed for the use of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs ( S. HRG. 111–144 ENHANCING INVESTOR PROTECTION AND THE REGULATION OF SECURITIES MARKETS—PART II HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON FURTHER EXAMINING WHAT WENT WRONG IN THE SECURITIES MARKETS, HOW WE CAN PREVENT THE PRACTICES THAT LED TO OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM PROBLEMS, AND HOW TO PROTECT INVESTORS MARCH 26, 2009 Printed for the use of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs ( Available at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate05sh.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 53–176 PDF WASHINGTON : 2009 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut, Chairman TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama JACK REED, Rhode Island ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York JIM BUNNING, Kentucky EVAN BAYH, Indiana MIKE CRAPO, Idaho ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey MEL MARTINEZ, Florida DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii BOB CORKER, Tennessee SHERROD BROWN, Ohio JIM DEMINT, South Carolina JON TESTER, Montana DAVID VITTER, Louisiana HERB KOHL, Wisconsin MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK R. WARNER, Virginia KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado COLIN MCGINNIS, Acting Staff Director WILLIAM D. DUHNKE, Republican Staff Director DEAN SHAHINIAN, Senior Counsel JULIE CHON, Senior Policy Adviser BRIAN FILIPOWICH, Legislative Assistant MARK OESTERLE, Republican Chief Counsel HESTER PIERCE, Republican Senior Counsel ANDREW OLMEM, Republican Senior Counsel DAWN RATLIFF, Chief Clerk DEVIN HARTLEY, Hearing Clerk SHELVIN SIMMONS, IT Director JIM CROWELL, Editor (II) CONTENTS THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009 Page Opening statement of Chairman Dodd .................................................................. 1 Opening statements, comments, or prepared statements of: Senator Shelby .................................................................................................. 4 WITNESSES Mary L. Schapiro, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission ................. 5 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 74 Response to written questions of: Senator Menendez ..................................................................................... 247 Fred J. Joseph, President, North American Securities Administrators Association ............................................................................................................ 7 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 84 Richard C. Breeden, Former Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission 33 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 92 Arthur Levitt, Former Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission .......... 34 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 101 Paul S. Atkins, Former Commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission . 37 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 104 Richard G. Ketchum, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Financial Indus- try Regulatory Association .................................................................................. 53 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 162 Ronald A. Stack, Chair, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board ...................... 55 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 166 Richard Baker, President and Chief Executive Officer, Managed Funds Association ............................................................................................................ 57 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 181 Response to written questions of: Senator Reed .............................................................................................. 249 James Chanos, Chairman, Coalition of Private Investment Companies ............ 59 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 187 Response to written questions of: Senator Reed .............................................................................................. 254 Barbara Roper, Director of Investor Protection, Consumer Federation of America ................................................................................................................. 61 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 195 David G. Tittsworth, Executive Director and Executive Vice President, Invest- ment Adviser Association .................................................................................... 62 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 216 Rita M. Bolger, Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Global Regulatory Affairs, Standard & Poor’s ............................................................... 64 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 228 Response to written questions of: Senator Reed .............................................................................................. 277 Daniel Curry, President, DBRS, Inc. ..................................................................... 66 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 243 Response to written questions of: Senator Reed .............................................................................................. 277 (III) ENHANCING INVESTOR PROTECTION AND THE REGULATION OF SECURITIES MAR- KETS—PART II THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The Committee met at 9:36 a.m., in room SD–538, Dirksen Sen- ate Office Building, Senator Christopher J. Dodd (Chairman of the Committee) presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CHRISTOPHER J. DODD Chairman DODD. Good morning. The Committee will come to order. Let me welcome my colleagues who are here, as well as our witnesses. We have a very busy morning today. We have got a long list of very distinguished witnesses to appear before us this morn- ing on the subject matter of enhancing investor protection and the regulation of securities markets. This is the ninth—is it the ninth or tenth?—on the general matter of the modernization of Federal regulations and the second very specific hearing on the securities industry itself. There is an awful lot of ground to cover here. We have three pan- els this morning, the first, of course, involving Mary Schapiro, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Fred Joseph, who is the President of North American Securities Admin- istrators Association. A second panel of witnesses who have been before this Com- mittee on numerous occasions, of course, the previous Chairs—I see Mr. Breeden is here already this morning, and Arthur Levitt and others, along with Paul Atkins, who will be testifying about their experience, background, how this all emerged, and their thoughts on how we move forward. And then a third panel of witnesses who will give us some very current experiences they are going through and ideas and thoughts as to how we ought to proceed. So I appreciate their testimony. What I am going to do is have opening statements by just Sen- ator Shelby and myself, although Senator Warner is here, and as long as no one else shows up, you can make an opening statement, because I worry about if we have everybody show up, we will be here until midnight tonight. [Laughter.] Senator SHELBY. Governor Warner—he is used to those opening statements. (1) 2 Chairman DODD. Yes, I know. Well, he was a good Governor and he is a good Senator. We welcome him to this Committee. Then I am going to ask my colleagues—we are going to have one round on the first panel. As much as there are many questions, ob- viously, we have for both of you, but if we end up with too many rounds, we will never get to the second and third panels, and col- leagues have busy schedules as well, as do our witnesses. So we will cut it off after one round. Then we will go to the second panel, which I will leave a little more open, given the backgrounds of our witnesses, and the third panel. With that, let me share some opening comments and then turn to Senator Shelby, and then we will go right to our witnesses this morning. Today, the Committee