The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and National Futures Association (NFA), a U.S. derivatives industry organization, recently entered into a memorandum of understanding to enhance their cooperation, coordination, and information sharing in areas of common regulatory interest.
Matters of mutual regulatory interest include financial markets’ conditions, examination planning, and emerging risks.
“Regulatory bodies working together should not be a novel concept,” Paul Atkins, SEC chairman, said. “It should be the norm. Coordination between regulatory organizations provides businesses a predictable, straightforward path to compliance and comprehensive protections for investors that build trust in our markets. This memorandum is another step in furthering the SEC’s efforts to streamline cooperation with other regulatory organizations and alleviate the potential for duplicative or conflicting oversight.”
Periodic meetings between the SEC and NFA’s will improve coordination to further enhance the organizations’ staffs ability to promote compliance with derivatives and securities laws, minimize duplicative efforts and maintain oversight quality.
“We look forward to continuing our coordination efforts with the SEC under this formal framework,” Thomas Sexton, NFA President and CEO, said. “We believe this memorandum represents an important milestone for NFA and will allow us to further foster our mission of protecting customers and ensuring market integrity.”