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In 1871, a century and a half ago, as the story goes, Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern. That led to the Great Chicago Fire, which left over a hundred thousand people without homes and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, and that's in 1871 dollars.

Now, what does Mrs. O'Leary's cow have to do with the Securities and Exchange Commission?

The Chicago fire was caused by so much more than bovine mischief. It was about building materials and incentives related to Chicago infrastructure. It was about fire prevention, firefighting equipment, building codes.

Chicagoans understood this. When they rebuilt their city, they did it with better infrastructure and standards to prevent fires from starting and then containing the spread. And such investments in resiliency were well worth it. Chicagoans have benefited ever since.

Well, the same is true in finance. History is full of times when fires in one corner of the financial system, or at one financial institution, spread across the broader economy.

And fires can come from either banks or non-banks. And when that happens, the American public, you and me alike, bystanders, just like those Chicagoans who saw their homes burn, inevitably get hurt, losing jobs, homes, businesses, mortgages, and more.

And that's why after a fire in the financial system, the 1929 Market Crash, the ensuing Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt and Congress came together and established the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And for 90 years since, Congress repeatedly has enhanced our authorities in the wake of subsequent financial fires. Promoting financial resiliency goes to the core of our three-part mission. It's the essence of fair, orderly, and efficient markets. You see, in normal times it helps promote trust in our capital markets. But in times of stress, it protects investors and issuers alike.

That's why we are updating our rules as technology and business models evolve.

In the U.S. Treasury markets, for instance, we recently adopted rules to promote central clearing in these markets.

We're also working on rules to register dealers, regulate trading platforms, promote greater transparency.

We finalized rules to enhance money market funds’ risk management.

We finalized rules to shorten the settlement cycle in equity markets, helping ensure that dollars and securities change hands more quickly, lowering risk.

We continue working on rulemaking initiatives to improve visibility into private funds, including hedge funds. It’s through a form called “Form PF.”

We also have a number of cybersecurity projects to enhance market resiliency in the modern digital age.

It's a good thing when our markets can better prevent and withstand fires from cows or any other cause. It benefits investors and issuers alike when we beef up our market resiliency.