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In her keynote address at the 2017 Brodsky Family Northwestern JD-MBA Lecture Series, CFTC Commissioner Sharon Y. Bowen described her thinking on the key trends driving regulatory activity. Commissioner Bowen identified “four disruptive elements” she believes are substantially responsible for changes that have been seen recently in financial markets. In turn, these disruptive elements are prompting questions about what they mean for markets and society, and what actions we should ask from regulators.

In response to Executive Order 13772, on June 14, 2017 Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin published a report identifying recommendations for changes to the regulation of the U.S. financial system in a manner consistent with the Executive Order’s “core principles.” Some of the “core principles” laid out in the executive order are addressed in bills currently being debated in Congress. The report takes up some of these same issues, but with slightly different approaches than those proposed by legislators.

In a keynote address before the Systemic Risk and Organization of the Financial System Conference in California on May 12, 2017 FDIC Vice Chairman Tom Hoenig announced his novel market-based proposal to strengthen the financial system and provide regulatory relief and foster long-term economic growth. According to Hoenig, even after the financial crisis, “the U.S. financial system remains heavily subsidized, increasingly concentrated, and, despite a host of new efforts to safeguard the system, it continues to be vulnerable to inevitable financial shocks.”