SEC Invites Comments on Strategic Plan; Clayton Testifies on Capitol Hill

The SEC released a draft strategic plan that focuses on investors, innovation, and performance as the top strategic goals in coming years and is seeking public comment on the proposed draft that will guide the SEC’s priorities through FY 2022.  The plan cites three specific goals and highlights several initiatives under each goal including:

• Identify, and take steps to address, existing SEC rules and approaches that are outdated.
• Examine strategies to address cyber and other system and infrastructure risks faced by the capital markets and market participants.
• Expand the use of risk and data analytics to inform how the SEC sets regulatory priorities and focuses staff resources, including developing a data management program that treats data as an SEC-wide resource with appropriate data protections, enabling rigorous analysis at reduced cost.

In testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services SEC Chairman Jay Clayton discussed the strategic plan as well as current and future agency initiatives. He discussed progress made on rulemakings, including the investment adviser/broker-dealer conduct standards, the liquidity rule, and the ETF rule proposal. He also focused on the agency’s continuing attention to the developments in the digital asset and initial coin offering markets. Clayton discussed cybersecurity and stated that internal review of the 2016 intrusion of the SEC’s EDGAR system is in its final stages. He answered questions from lawmakers on a number of issues, including extending the comment period for the standard of conduct rule.