Good afternoon. It’s great to be here at the annual Conference on Financial Market Regulation. I’ve enjoyed the discussions so far, and I am looking forward to hearing more. And I want to welcome Jessica Wachter, our new Chief Economist, to the SEC. I am very pleased that you are joining us, and I am looking forward to working with you.
Before I begin my remarks, I need to mention that the views that I express today are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission or its staff.
To start, I want to note that I am thankful for the work that economists do inside and outside the SEC to help us understand the markets we regulate. It’s vital in terms of providing insight and analysis to help shape our regulatory approach. As those of you who have spoken to me may have noticed, I am not an economist. But I do have an economist’s love of good data and the data-driven rulemaking that can result.
Data are central to what we do at the SEC. Economists like you are on the front lines in terms of analyzing, interpreting, and using the data that we have, but without data, no one at the SEC would be able to do their jobs well.
Of course, when we collect data, especially data that contains personal or proprietary information, we need to protect and manage it carefully. Serious harm can come from the mismanagement of data. And we need to be cognizant of the impact on market participants of reporting and disclosure requirements.
However, serious harm can also come from regulating in the absence of relevant data. Without information about the markets that the SEC regulates, we may fail to address problems in our markets, or even make them worse. There is a cost if we fail to obtain the data we need to analyze and to understand the markets—and while the cost may be difficult to quantify, it is very real.
