The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is calling on the U.S. Congress to establish a new market stability regulator.

SIFMA’s president and CEO, Tim Ryan, testified before the House Financial Services Committee on the future of financial services regulation today. In that testimony he called for a single regulator charged with ensuring market stability.

He noted that financial institutions no longer operate in product or business silos, or in purely domestic or local markets. Yet the regulatory structure remains siloed at both the state and federal levels, he said. “No single regulator currently has access to sufficient information or the practical and legal tools and authority necessary to protect the financial system as a whole against systemic risk,” he noted.

“Thus we believe Congress should consider the need for a financial markets stability regulator that has access to information about financial institutions of all kinds that may be systemically important, including banks, broker-dealers, insurance companies, hedge funds, private equity funds and others,” Ryan added.

“We also should recognize that financial markets are global in nature. As such, we need a global approach to financial regulatory reform. Close cooperation among policy makers on an international basis will play an important part in effectively addressing weaknesses in financial regulation,” he said.

Ryan also discussed structured products and derivatives and additional steps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of regulation.

IE