In his first address as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton reaffirmed his dedication to the Commission’s guiding principles and historic approach to regulation. At the same time, however, Chairman Clayton said he sees areas where the SEC’s regulations need to evolve to "reflect the realities of our capital markets.” One of these realities is that implementing regulatory change has costs, and over time cumulative regulation and the associated costs can drive behavior that has dramatic effects on the market.

In its semi-annual Monetary Policy Report submitted to Congress on July 7, 2017, the Federal Reserve Board indicated that regulatory reforms since the global financial crisis "have likely altered financial institutions' incentives to provide liquidity.”  The Fed found that In recent years, market participants have been particularly concerned with liquidity conditions in the corporate bond market. This concern stems from the tendency for bonds to be traded less frequently and more reliance on dealer intermediation for liquidity provision than in many other markets. Despite these concerns, however, the metrics available to the Fed do "not point to any substantial impairment in liquidity in major financial markets.”

On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision which ended California Public Employees' Retirement System’s (“CALPERS”) efforts to spin off its own Lehman-related claims from a larger class action because the claims were filed late.  The Court held that the three-year time limit in Section 13 of the Securities Act of 1933 is a statute of repose. Consequently, the Court held that the filing of a class action suit under Section 13 does not stop the clock on the statute of limitations for plaintiffs who subsequently opt-out of the class to pursue individual lawsuits.