The broadest shake-up in U.S. financial services law since the Great Depression will be "logistically challenging and extremely labor intensive," top securities regulator Mary Schapiro said in prepared remarks Monday.
Ahead of her testimony before a House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday, Schapiro said the Securities and Exchange Commission will likely need 800 extra positions to implement the financial overhaul law President Barack Obama plans to sign this week.
The legislation hands the regulator sweeping new powers including supervision of advisers to hedge funds and private equity funds, and joint oversight over the $615 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market.
Other new authorities include a mandate to adopt new rules on shareholder rights, including giving shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive pay and a directive to study whether brokers should have fiduciary duties, or be required to put their clients' interests first.
The SEC will also have a seat on the new Financial Stability Oversight Council, set up under the bill to monitor systemic risk in the financial system.
Regulators from the SEC to the Federal Reserve are now crunching the numbers to determine how to carry out the new enforcement powers given them by the financial services law.
