Wermers Featured in SEC Dialogue on Investor Protection and Market Efficiency

Russell Wermers, professor of finance and director of the Center for Financial Policy at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, participated in a dialogue on securities market regulation on Sept. 8, 2017 at Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) headquarters in Washington D.C.

The event, jointly sponsored by the SEC and NYU Stern, brought together practitioners, regulators and academics to learn, engage and discuss the state of the current ETP market and to exchange ideas on issues related to investor protection and market efficiency. Wermers shared the platform with faculty from New York University and Ohio State University, plus moderator Scott Bauguess, SEC deputy chief economist deputy director of the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis.

The experts discussed implications from a two-decade surge in the number (now 2,000) of U.S.-listed exchange-traded products (ETPs), which has brought assets under management in excess of $2.7 trillion. This activity now represents more than 30 percent of trading volume on securities exchanges. The dialogue (archived for playback, here, by the SEC) explored how ETPs affect the efficiency and quality of financial markets, the potential implications for investors who hold ETPs, and where the ETP market is headed.