U.S. and Hong Kong (2008)

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Speech by SEC Chairman:
'The SEC Agenda for 2008'

Remarks to the 'SEC Speaks in 2008' Program of the Practising Law Institute
by
Chairman Christopher Cox
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C.
February 8, 2008

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Earlier this week, our Enforcement Division settled a high-profile insider trading case that accused a tipper in Hong Kong of threatening the integrity of markets here in the U.S. by enabling illegal profits from trades in the securities of Dow Jones.

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As you know, we've just celebrated the Chinese New Year, which inaugurated the Year of the Rat. But at the SEC, 2008 will be the year of the Phoenix. That's the name of our updated software system that will track every disgorgement, penalty, and other monies owed to the SEC and to investors. The new Phoenix system will carefully track these claims and funds from the beginning of the process until the last dollar is returned to its rightful owner. Ever since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act vastly expanded the SEC's responsibilities in this area over five years ago, the agency has needed such a system. This year, for the first time, we will have it.

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Ensuring the integrity of the municipal securities market is another priority for our enforcement program in 2008. The reason for this priority is simple: the size of the municipal market is enormous, with $2.5 trillion of securities outstanding. That's roughly the GDP of China. And more than two-thirds of that amount is held, directly or indirectly, by individual investors. Our municipal fraud working group, headed up by Mark Zehner, will be firmly focused in 2008 on ferreting out fraud in the municipal bond market and punishing its perpetrators.

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