Strengthening U.S. Capital Markets for Entrepreneurs and Investors
Vibrant, Healthy Capital Markets Are Critical to Economic Growth
U.S. capital markets competitiveness is declining due to:
Strong Competition—foreign markets capable of supporting significant activity
Excessive Litigation—a litigation system and environment that has run amok
Bewildering Regulation—unnecessarily complex and overlapping regulatory systems
We Must Strengthen U.S. Capital Markets for Entrepreneurs and ALL Investors
America needs a nimble regulatory system that can identify potential problems early and deal with them more quickly and efficiently—heading off a crisis before it occurs.
Band-Aid solutions that will cause long-term harm to the economy are the wrong answer. We should not reward individuals or companies that made bad business bets, and Congress should not allow opportunistic special interests to take advantage of our economic crisis.
Government must not seek to create a system that eliminates risk from the market and stifles innovation.
The U.S. Chamber Is Leading the Effort to Strengthen Capital Markets and the Economy
In 2007, the Chamber launched the Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC), an initiative dedicated to maintaining and advancing America’s global leadership in capital formation by supporting capital markets that are the most fair, efficient, and innovative in the world.
CCMC is addressing these challenges through a sustained and well-financed program of education, research, advocacy, legal action, and reform. The center’s four key goals are to:
Establish a modern and coherent financial services regulatory structure. -Support the Treasury Blueprint (March 2008) as a step toward modernizing and streamlining the financial regulatory structure. -Fight to ensure that the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 (SOX 404) reflects the intent of Congress. -Successfully challenged proposed SEC mutual fund board independence rule twice in court.
Implement a global corporate financial reporting model. -Advocate movement toward global accounting and auditing standards to reflect the global nature of capital markets. -Champion reforms to repair the problems facing the accounting and auditing professions, beginning with litigation reform.
Restore fairness to legal, regulatory, and enforcement processes. -Object to overly burdensome and intrusive SEC enforcement practices. -Lobbied to pass House legislation and supporting Senate legislation to preserve attorney-client and work product privileges. -Reform current abusive securities litigation system.
Promote innovation and long-term interests of ALL investors. -Research retirement savings trends. -Examine conflicts of interest of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) governance services to ensure a more transparent and evidence-based policymaking process. -Fight changes to proxy access rules to prevent special interest manipulation.
Chamber Assets Dedicated to Capital Markets and the Economy
Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness
The mission of the U.S. Chamber's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) is to maintain and advance America's global leadership in capital formation by supporting capital markets that are the most fair, efficient, and innovative in the world.
The Economic Policy Division provides first-rate analysis of the economy and the factors that impact economic well being. Additionally, the Economic Policy Division encompasses small business, tax, antitrust, privatization and procurement policies, and their respective committees.
"We have it within our power to take sensible, effective steps to ensure that U.S. markets are the most fair, efficient, transparent, and attractive in the world. The question is, can we find the political will to take them."
