Chair Gary Gensler’s End of Term Video

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Montage of Video Clips:

I got to give props to the SEC.

We are getting some breaking news here on GameStop.

This hearing is entitled GameStopped.

But, there are dark pools.

We have 58% of American households that are invested in the stock market.

Our agency put out an agenda-50 or 55 items on it.

Lowering risk in the system in the U.S. Treasury markets.

What are these now, half-penny increments we might be experiencing?

Screen fades to Chair Gary Gensler.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is a remarkable agency entrusted by Congress and more importantly, by you, the American public, to oversee our $120 trillion capital markets. And ensure that the common sense rules of the road for those markets are followed. Common sense rules of the road help everyday folks like you, like me by lowering the cost in the markets, lowering the risk, and building trust in the markets themselves.

Over the last four years, I've had the great privilege to work alongside the SEC's incredibly talented staff, a staff committed to its mission. The staff here oversee more than 30,000 registrants. They conduct more than 3,000 examinations a year, and they respond to upwards to 100,000 inquiries from market participants each year. They respond to tens of thousands of tips, complaints, and referrals. In four years, this agency has returned more than $2.7 billion to harmed investors.

Now, technology, business models, and markets themselves, they don't stand still. They're constantly changing. And further, there's competitors around the globe that seek to take the U.S.'s mantle as the world's capital market leader. Can't take anything for granted.

That's why we at the SEC have taken on numerous projects over the past four years to ensure lower cost called efficiency, greater integrity that you can trust the markets and resiliency in our markets. We've done a lot over these four years, but it's for you and these capital markets.

We put out proposals with regard to more transparency about short selling, about where one borrows stock about insiders of big companies selling their stock. It's why, for the first time in 20 years, we comprehensively updated the rules in the nearly $60 trillion U.S. equity market, including narrowing the increments for stock quotes down to a half a penny, from a penny. You see, that saves you money. I also think it promotes capital formation. If you narrow the spreads for those in the middle.

It's why we shortened what's called the settlement cycle, not only for stocks, but also corporate bonds and municipal bonds to one day. It means if you sell your stock on a Monday, you get your cash on a Tuesday you no longer have to wait till Wednesday.

It's why we put in place reforms to lower costs and risk in one of the most consequential markets, the $28 trillion U.S. Treasury markets. It's why we adopted reforms for money market funds, $7 trillion in size.

It's why we updated important reporting tools for a critical part of our markets, the $30 trillion private funds sector.

But we also did things around corporate governance and disclosure. We adopted rules for when corporate insiders who might have material nonpublic information, how they can sell their shares and when they can sell their shares. It's also when they have to return compensation based on misstated financials.

It's why we adopted rules for disclosure of material information around cybersecurity incidents, around climate related risk, around how executive compensation actually relates to the company's financial performance.

And it's why we adopted rules in response to the boom of something called Special Purpose Acquisition Companies. You know it as SPACs. I think the Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, these blank check companies that the risk are to investors and the disclosure to the investors.

We also took on some issues around auditing and accounting. We helped reinvigorate an independent watchdog that Congress created more than 20 years ago, called the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. And in just the last three years, that board updated half of its interim standards and rules, some of which had gone unchanged since literally, I was in college. And yes, that was a little while ago.

It's why we worked on negotiations with China to solve a 20 year problem, to ensure that that board could fully inspect and investigate auditors of China related companies listed here in the United States. You're going to have on-the-ground inspectors in Hong Kong.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, now 90 years old, is central to our economic well-being. Our capital markets cover nearly every financial product you can think of. They affect your investments, your 401(K), your mortgage, your car loan, your employer's borrowings. They affect how your employer raises money and how you may fund your own business. The SEC touches all of these things, so the better this agency does, the better our economy does, the better that you do.

It's a remarkable agency, not only because of the breadth and scope of its authorities, but because of its mission driven staff who wake up every day to work for you, the American public, without fear or favor.

It's why I'm so honored to have served alongside my fellow commissioners and all of my SEC colleagues on behalf of everyday Americans.

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