SEC, CFTC Step Up Coordination on a Framework for Tokenized Securities

June 5 — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Jamie Selway, Director of the Division of Trading and Markets, laid out the agency's regulatory priorities under SEC Chairman Paul Atkins in remarks at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange and FinTech Conference. Selway said the SEC is building a framework for the listing and trading of tokenized securities, anchored in the principle of "innovation without regulatory arbitrage". He added that the SEC is also reviewing a number of new product proposals alongside the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, while the two agencies work to identify and address ambiguities or inconsistencies across their respective rulebooks. Initial areas of focus include swap and security-based swap data reporting, portfolio margining, and product definitions. Selway cautioned that the coordination effort must avoid two key pitfalls: blurring the line between investing and gambling, and allowing excessive leverage for inexperienced investors.