Statement of Commissioner Bart Chilton, Joint Meetings on Harmonization of Regulation, Washington, D.C.

September 2, 3, 2009

I commend Chairmen Schapiro and Gensler for convening these important joint public meetings of our two agencies. I am particularly gratified to be here today, inasmuch as I have been calling for this action for two years. In my tenure at the Commission, we have dealt with numerous issues of mutual interest and concern, and I believe we’ve learned from those efforts; we will not repeat the mistakes of the past. We are two agencies, but more importantly, we are one government, with paramount goals of protecting consumers and ensuring market integrity. Those constants don't change.

I look forward to continuing to improve our agencies’ coordination and cooperation in many areas, including cross-jurisdictional product approval, development of a true risk-based portfolio margining program that neither advantages nor disadvantages any market sector, and creation of new rules to allow foreign market access relating to derivatives on foreign broad-based indexes. Indeed, as to the latter two initiatives, Congress has given us specific deadlines under which we must act. I fully expect that the agencies will move forward promptly in these and other areas, and will be able to do so cooperatively and autonomously, acting as independent federal regulators with distinct and different missions, but with common goals.

Last Updated: June 10, 2010