Paradigm Shift: Federal Securities Regulation in the New Millennium

Abstract:     
In May 2007, Oaktree Capital Management LLC, a U.S.-based hedge fund adviser with over forty billion dollars in assets under management, sold approximately fourteen percent of its equity for more than $800 million in a widespread offering made to a number of prospective purchasers. This equity offering was not made on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Instead, Oaktree's initial offering was made on the U.S. private market. The company thereafter listed its equity securities on Goldman Sachs & Co.'s non-public market, the GS Tradable Unregistered Equity OTC Market. This offering is emblematic of a paradigm shift occurring in the capital markets: the market for capital is increasingly competitive and global, viable public and private markets are proliferating world-wide, domestic investing patterns are changing as intermediary investing and deretailization occur, and financial innovation is quickening. The result is an on-going, perhaps revolutionary, transformation in the scope and structure of the global and domestic capital markets. This essay is about this paradigm shift, its implications for the SEC regulatory process and the future of federal securities regulation. It was prepared for and presented at the 2008 meeting of the AALS securities regulation section.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

Keywords: securities regulation, stock exchanges, hedge funds, regulatory competition, globalization, international securities regulation, SEC, intermediation, deretailization

JEL Classification: D4, F21, G1, G2, G15, G18, G28, K22, K33, L51

working papers series