Mary L. Schapiro: “The transparency is really the critical piece here because it allows market participants to understand.”

We have worked tirelessly to make the SEC a more vigilant, agile, and responsive agency over the past 2 years.

Thanks to the strong support that this subcommittee has provided, the SEC has begun to rebuild that confidence by making needed and significant changes to virtually every aspect of our operations.

The worst result I think we could have would be for investors to lose confidence generally again, as they did after Enron, in the quality and the integrity of financial statements.

This time around, I have had more than a few people in my office weeping with fear about what might happen to them because one person or another was looking into their behavior.