SEC© commish blasts Dodd-Frank as huge ‘distraction’

Publisher: CNBC
Author: Bob Pisani

On the fifth anniversary of the Flash Crash, I sat down with SEC© Commissioner Dan Gallagher to talk about what changes have been made to the way trading has been conducted since then. The conversation quickly turned to Dodd-Frank.

Why the sudden left turn? Because the SEC© staff has been consumed by writing rules for Dodd-Frank for the past four years, practically to the detriment of everything else, and it’s not over, not by a long shot. Gallagher wants to spend more time on strengthening the trading system, but Dodd-Frank is taking up all the time.

“These are all hugely important things that are critical to the agency, but we’re not spending time on them because we’re doing silly rules like some of the ones we’ve been handling the last couple of months. Dodd-Frank has been an awful distraction to the agency, and I’m hoping that, although it’s the law of the land and we have to implement the remaining 50 percent, that we can prioritize other, more important things ahead of it,” Gallagher said.

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