Merging the SEC and CFTC has been suggested many times before, but the politics have always been challenging. The House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee oversee the SEC, while the respective agriculture committees oversee the CFTC. That reflects the CFTC’s origins, having begun as an office within the Agriculture Department because of the importance of agricultural futures to farmers.
Having had the honor of chairing the CFTC, I apologize to my former colleagues if they feel I’ve thrown them under the bus. But a merger could be a boon for the CFTC’s historic mission of regulating the markets for derivatives on physical commodities like agricultural products, metals, and energy. Those markets are critical to the global economy and to the livelihood of farmers and many other firms up and down supply chains and may not be getting sufficient attention given the recent expansion of the CFTC’s mission into crypto and prediction markets.
A merger could reinforce the importance of those markets. We could create a vice chairman to oversee regulatory responsibilities for historic commodities just as we created a vice chairman for supervision at the Federal Reserve Board. That position could be subject to confirmation and oversight by the Congressional agricultural committees, maintaining their oversight roles and easing legislative enactment of merger. The new agency should be given a new name, like the Financial Markets Agency. This is not an acquisition, and we should instill a new, joint culture.
Source: The best way to regulate digital assets: Merge the SEC and CFTC | Brookings