Basics

As the United States has grown and evolved, it has passed more and more legislation governing the financial services industry. Much of this legislation, to accommodate the new powers vested in the executive branch, created new agencies. Today, a complex web of agencies dominates the financial services regulatory environment. These agencies have transformed the U.S. financial services landscape, making the U.S. one of the best nations for financial institutions to do business and ensuring that the U.S. economy remains robust and relatively safe from financial shocks. However, the numerous agencies can often place a burden on businesses, especially smaller companies, and at times perform duplicative functions. Calls to reform or streamline the functions of U.S. financial regulators are nearly as old as the agencies themselves, and there is always room to improve the U.S. financial services industry by strengthening, combining, or eliminating duplicative processes, or all three.