Commissioner Jackson is implicitly critical of a market dominated by passive index funds. On a big picture level, the SEC's proposed "" very likely drives the market in that direction as it increases the legal risk that brokers undertake in making individual securities recommendations to clients. This does not demonstrate that the regulation is inherently bad: only that, whatever benefits the regulators believe Regulation Best Interest may provide, it also has significant costs. In…

Firms should promptly review their compliance procedures to see how they match up against the new requirements. That said, none of the new requirements should meaningfully impair the business of any NFA registrant.

Mr. Giancarlo's praise for his likely successor is noteworthy. Mr. Giancarlo has been an outstanding regulator who is forward-thinking, always seeking to find a way to achieve a good balance of regulation and free markets and to co-operate with foreign regulators but not concede to them.

At least Europe and the United States have something in common.