7/13/2011
New York, NY
As Prepared for Delivery
Thank you, it is a real pleasure to be here today. I want to thank SIFMA for including me in this program.
In my role covering financial markets at the Treasury, there are many things we could talk about today. Front and center in the news and in much of my ongoing work is the debt limit and ongoing deficit negotiations in Washington. I hope to have a chance to answer a few questions about those issues at the end of this speech, but I would like to first focus on financial regulatory reform.
Nearly one year ago, Congress passed and the President signed into law the most significant financial reform since the 1930s. As history shows, crisis and subsequent reform can be an important catalyst for stability and a baseline for tremendous growth. After the Great Depression, we adopted a strong set of reforms governing finance that restored investor confidence in U.S. institutions and markets. The regulatory checks and balances helped to create a remarkably long period of relative economic stability. Recessions happened, but they were shorter and less damaging. The result was that, for decades, the U.S. was among the most desirable places in the world to invest. Our financial system was the envy of the rest of the world. Over time, however, the great strengths of our financial system and the regulatory checks and balances eroded in the run up to the financial crisis.
As we work to carry out the Dodd-Frank Act, we are mindful that in order for the U.S. to remain a desirable place to invest, we must put in place a framework that restores integrity in our financial markets and engenders the trust and confidence of not just Americans, but also investors around the world. The reputation of our financial system is at stake.
Strong investor and consumer protections combined with dynamic, competitive markets are essential to ensuring that the financial system can efficiently direct investment. Entrepreneurs, innovators, and small businesses must have the opportunity to access the financing that they need to grow and to create jobs for Americans. Ultimately, that is what the financial system is about – providing efficient and effective means of transferring capital from savers and investors to entrepreneurs and other businesses that drive economic growth.”
In order to make sure that the financial system can serve that critical function in the economy, we are committed to implementing effective reform that encourages stability, which is necessary to restore investor confidence in our markets. We will ensure that reform is cost-effective by considering the costs and benefits. We are committed to getting the balance and details of reform correct so that markets can function effectively with consistent, transparent rules of the road. And, we are committed to moving as quickly as possible to provide the certainty that markets need.
The obligation to put in place effective reforms exists because the costs of not doing so are too high. Scaling back or repealing major parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, or not providing regulators with the funds they need to implement the Act, will leave our economy exposed to a cycle of collapses and crises, with potentially devastating repercussions for businesses, for financial markets, and for all Americans. In the absence of the protections that the Dodd-Frank Act puts in place, our system descended into a crisis that has left deep scars on our nation. (continued)
Source: www.treasury.gov
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