“As the Treasury Secretary, my goal is to promote the conditions for American prosperity and economic growth – and maintaining the competitiveness of our capital markets is central to that goal. Capital markets are the lifeblood of our economy.” - Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Strengthening Our Capital Markets
The United States has the strongest capital markets in the world, and this position is achieved through hard work and smart strategies that keep up with a dynamic, global marketplace. Secretary Paulson hosted a conference in March 2007 with some of the best and brightest financial minds to examine ways to maintain U.S. capital markets competitiveness and has embarked on multiple initiatives to strengthen our markets.

• Treasury Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession

Private Pools of Capital
The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets recently released guidance for private pools of capital, which include hedge funds, private equity and venture capital funds, to address systemic risk and investor protection issues. The guidance represents a uniform view from Treasury and a broad group of key independent regulators that heightened vigilance is necessary and desired to address market developments.

Principles-Based Regulation
Secretary Paulson believes the U.S. financial regulatory system should seek better managed, more competitive companies that earn investor confidence through sound leadership, thoughtful governance, and outstanding performance. While our existing regulatory system was created to achieve this goal, we must seek a system that is also flexible enough to adapt to an ever-changing marketplace and that takes into consideration a more rigorous cost-benefit analysis of new regulation.

Last Updated: July 21, 2008