The Securities and Exchange Commission blew a perfect opportunity to redefine its role with its decision last week to accept a $550m settlement with Goldman Sachs over accusations that the bank misled various investors in a subprime mortgage product at the start of the US housing crash. In its founding legislation, Congress empowered the SEC both to protect investors and to ensure a fair and efficient market. The settlement may have accomplished the first goal. But it also showed the SEC's continuing failure to take its wider regulatory role in a more aggressive direction.
美国证券交易委员会(SEC) 7月16日决定，接受高盛(Goldman Sachs)支付5.5亿美元，就该银行在美国住宅市场崩溃之初出售的一种次贷产品上误导了各类投资者的指控达成和解。SEC由此错失了一次重新定义自身角色的绝佳机会。在成立SEC的立法中，美国国会赋予了SEC保护投资者和确保市场公平有效的权力。与高盛的和解或许实现了第一个目标，但这也表明，SEC仍未能朝着更有进攻性的方向发挥其更广泛的监管职能。