The heads of the U.S. agencies that regulate securities and commodities pressed a Senate committee on Tuesday. They are urging the U.S. Congress to boost their budgets in the face of growing sophistication in the financial markets and technology.
According to Reuters, President Barack Obama has recently proposed a budget, requesting an 11 percent boost up for the Securities and Exchange Commission. This would bring its spending to $1.781 billion.
The U.S. President also asked for a 32 percent increase for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The proposed budget would give the agency overseeing the $400 trillion U.S. swaps market, as well as a $331 million budget for commodities trading.
The SEC makes up for any taxpayer funds it receives with user fees and fines. This means that the agency's spending does not affect the federal deficit, as mentioned in A2Z NEWS.
However, Senator John Bozzman of Arkansas, which is the Republican's Chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on financial services, stated that it did not leave it free of oversight, as reported by Yahoo! News. "Congress has a responsibility to ensure those funds are being spent in a manner that protects investors, helps markets operate efficiently and spurs economic growth for all Americans," he mentioned at Tuesday's hearing.
The Republican Senator also added, "Access to more funding does not necessarily ensure that an agency will successfully achieve its mission or spend that funding responsibly." Moreover, Chair Mary Jo White said that for the SEC, "Additional funding is imperative if we are to continue the agency's progress in fulfilling its responsibilities over our increasingly fast, complex and growing markets."
During the a hearing, CFTC Chair Timothy Massad claimed that the SEC "does not have the resources necessary to adequately oversee" its markets, especially "with an industry that is changing and innovating at the speed of light and that is much larger and more complex than even just a few years ago." He also went on to state that more than a third of the extra dollars requested would go toward information technology.
Meanwhile, it was said that a portion of the increase of about $15.5 million would go toward enforcement. The boost would be helpful as the agency faces a lot of well-financed defendants with powerful defense teams.
