Chaos King

🚨NEW: Speaking at the flagship futures industry conference in Boca Raton, FL, @SECPaulSAtkins is laying out more details on the @SECGov and @CFTC’s push for regulatory harmonization. Lots to unpack in this speech: 1. Atkins declared the “regrettable era of duplicative enforcement actions” over, saying the agencies should coordinate legal theories and remedies when pursuing the same conduct. 2. He also floated the idea of “substituted compliance” between the agencies. If one agency’s framework achieves comparable regulatory outcomes, he said, it should be capable of satisfying overlapping requirements of the other. The goal: reduce duplication for companies registered with both. 3. The SEC is launching an SEC-CFTC harmonization webpage where firms can request coordinated discussions with staff from both agencies when launching products or seeking guidance. 4. The regulators will also hold joint meetings on new and pending product applications aimed at speeding up approvals. 5. On prediction markets, Atkins called for cross-agency clarity on event contracts, including whether some could qualify as security-based swaps or other securities. 6. Atkins highlighted cross-margining as a way to unlock liquidity currently stuck in separate accounts across derivatives markets, allowing firms to use the same collateral across related platforms. 7. The agencies are also working on an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to coordinate exams, supervision, and enforcement for firms regulated by both agencies. Atkins closed with a disclaimer that the coordination doesn’t mean the agencies are merging: “The SEC and the CFTC operate under distinct statutes entrusted to us by Congress, and we must administer those mandates faithfully. But fulfilling our responsibility does not require fragmentation; in fact, it calls for coordination.”