SEC And CFTC Enter Memorandum Of Understanding To Promote Cross Agency Collaboration 

On March 11, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding^[1] (“MOU”) to “guide coordination and collaboration” between the agencies. The MOU specifically seeks to address what SEC Chairman Paul Atkins called the “regulatory turf wars, duplicative agency registrations, and different sets of regulations between the SEC and CFTC” that have led to duplicative or fragmented oversight for financial market participants.

The MOU identifies key areas of coordination between the regulators, including: (i) clarifying product definitions through joint interpretations and rulemakings; (ii) reducing frictions for dually registered market participants; (iii) providing a “fit-for-purpose” regulatory framework for crypto assets; (iv) streamlining regulatory reporting for trade data, funds, and intermediaries; and (v) coordinating cross-market examinations, economic analyses, risk monitoring, surveillance, and enforcement. The MOU also announces a shared regulatory philosophy between the agencies that aims to provide the “minimum effective dose” of regulation “to foster lawful innovation, respect individual liberty, strengthen market integrity, and enhance U.S. global competitiveness in finance.”

To implement these initiatives, the MOU states that the SEC and CFTC will each establish a senior-level coordination process, which may then lead to creation of formal teams within each agency tasked with working together to execute programs and projects aimed at achieving the goals set out in the MOU. How this initiative progresses, and how far, remains to be seen. At a minimum, we can expect new guidance to emerge as the agencies work together with the goals of the MOU in mind.

While the MOU explains the goals of a joint approach to regulation, it does not change anything about the agencies’ jurisdiction or statutory authority – the SEC and CFTC remain fully independent. And while the agencies will make an effort to share information where productive and appropriate, the MOU does not require information sharing. Any sharing of information will be at the sole discretion of the agency, and information is still subject to applicable policies and disclosure regulations.

Categories: CFTC, Cryptocurrency, SEC

[1]https://www.sec.gov/files/mou-sec-cftc-2026.pdf