Below is an excerpt from CAIA Association's open letter welcoming the Honorable Gary Gensler as New SEC Chairman.
Dear Chairman Gensler,
On behalf of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA), we congratulate and welcome you as the newly confirmed Chairman of the SEC. CAIA Association is a global professional body representing 12,000 members in over 100 countries dedicated to improving investment and societal outcomes for clients through professional education, transparency, and thought leadership. We therefore do not claim to “represent” any specific role or interests within the investment management chain but rather are wholly dedicated to a more efficient and trustworthy capital market system that serves the greater good. It is in this spirit and mission alignment that we look forward to a productive relationship with you and the Commission.
We wrote to your predecessor, Chairman Clayton, in March of 2020 expressing our opinion on the Commission’s review of the Accredited Investor rule. In that letter, we clearly stated our belief that there are significant benefits to expanded investor access to private markets, but only with requisite conditions and safeguards. Specifically, we argued that the rule sorely needed modernization given the tectonic shift of capital formation towards private markets in recent decades and that the traditional binary wealth and income test was a poor proxy in isolation to determine sophistication and risk appetite. Instead, we recommended an eligibility model founded upon proper education...