In a recent speech to the US Chamber of Commerce – rarely a friend of regulatory and enforcement action – Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox neatly encapsulated his agency’s relations with business.
Pointing out that it was unusual for the chairman of an agency that goes after corporate wrongdoing to be in the chamber’s midst, Mr Cox said both sides had still managed to maintain a cordial relationship – “many of us on a first-name basis”, he said. “Defendant. Plaintiff. Appellant.”
On Tuesday, Mr Cox’s attitude to enforcement and securities fraud litigation – and that of his four fellow SEC commissioners – will be tested in front of the key lawmaker in charge of overseeing the SEC, Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank.
Business will be watching closely as Mr Frank’s financial services committee grills Mr Cox on other issues as well: hedge-fund regulation, Sarbanes-Oxley and shareholder access to company proxies.
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