New Economic Czar Favors Single Agency for Markets

President-elect Clinton’s choice to head his new economic security council believes that regulators should explore having one federal agency oversee all of the nation’s financial markets, it was disclosed Tuesday.

Robert Rubin, co-chairman of the investment banking firm of Goldman, Sachs & Co., wrote to the Securities and Exchange Commission suggesting that the concept of one regulator “is an idea worthy of further study.”

Rubin’s remarks, on behalf of Goldman, came in an Oct. 20 letter to the SEC which had solicited industry comments for its planned Market 2000 study.

Clinton named Rubin to head the economic security council last week. The panel will include the secretaries of Treasury, agriculture, commerce, energy, labor, the budget director, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and the U.S. trade representative.

The SEC’s Market 2000 study, expected to be completed next spring, is the most ambitious look at the U.S. stock markets in decades.

The SEC has solicited commentary from Wall Street firms, exchanges, investors and academia on the markets’ structure and operation.

With an incoming Democratic Administration and the likelihood of a new SEC chairman early next year, Market 2000 could shape the direction of the markets well into the next century.

“The fragmented nature of the U.S. markets leads one to question what benefit could be attained by the creation of a single, unified trading market designed to incorporate the advantages of each of the current markets while minimizing the disadvantages as much as possible,” Rubin wrote.

He added: “A similar line of thought leads us to believe that improvements might also be achieved by consolidating the regulatory umbrella and settlement systems present in today’s markets. Surely, the concept of one, independent regulatory body overseeing all the trading markets is an idea worthy of further study.”