Better Markets Month in Review Newsletter - June 2026

Dear friend,

This month, Better Markets launched the Better Take Action campaign. The name says exactly what it means. We’re taking on the SEC’s proposal to let public companies stop filing quarterly financial reports and instead disclose to investors just twice a year. This is one of the biggest rollbacks of investor disclosure in more than 50 years, and the comment deadline is July 6, 2026. I wrote about it in detail in a recent Substack, but the core problem is simple: cut mandatory reporting in half, and you create a six-month blackout window during which financial distress, failed product launches, ballooning debt, and even fraud or misconduct can all develop entirely out of view. But, often not out of view for everyone—just for most. Corporate insiders will always know, and the big institutions with their research departments and corporate contacts and access will know. The SEC’s job is supposed to protect investors and level the playing field. This proposal does the opposite, plus it’ll make mispricing and volatility more frequent.

I took the argument directly to retail investors this month, with a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) event hosted on r/Superstonk to discuss what’s at stake. There are millions of everyday investors and tens of millions of Americans saving for retirement who know exactly what quarterly reporting means to them—and exactly what losing it would mean. They are not sitting on the sidelines.

If you’re a trader, investor, retiree or someone who cares about accurate stock prices and low volatility, then I hope you’ll join us in taking action. Head to BetterTakeAction.org to submit your own comment letter before the window closes. It only takes two minutes.

The quarterly reporting battle was not the only fight we were waging on behalf of investors and markets at the SEC this month. We also filed comment letters opposing the Commission’s proposal to kill the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT)—the key market surveillance system used to catch wrongdoing and market manipulation. Eliminating it would effectively handcuff the agency. We also pushed back on the SEC’s proposals to make private markets even more opaque and to rescind rules that ensure investors receive the best available prices. None of these are isolated technical adjustments. They are part of the same pattern I described in an earlier piece I wrote here: a deliberate, systematic shift at the SEC from an investor protection agency into a management protection agency—that’s bad for investors, our markets, and ultimately our economy.

We were also active on two other fronts. On prediction markets, we filed an amicus brief exposing the CFTC’s role in enabling unregulated online gambling and published a fact sheet on why allowing insider betting on Google search data is indefensible. And on banking, I issued a statement on the banking agencies’ reckless capital proposals, which our three comment letters detailed. Those letters clearly demonstrated how the Basel III, GSIB, and standardized approach capital proposals would tear down the post-2008 guardrails that stand between the big banks and the next taxpayer bailout. This week’s Fed stress test results—which our team showed were nothing more than a hollow exercise—only drive that point home. That’s why you’ll see us fighting harder than ever in the coming months for adequate capital at the biggest, most dangerous Wall Street banks, for a level playing field that allows community banks to thrive, and for policies that drive real broad-based economic growth and secure your family’s economic future.

One thing remains clear: what is happening right now across the SEC, the Fed, and the CFTC is not accidental, and it is not routine. It is a coordinated, accelerating effort to take the cops off the beat, reduce transparency, and give the financial industry free rein before anyone notices, and before anyone can stop it. We noticed. We’re fighting. And we are not stopping.

Read on to see exactly what we did about it in June.

Dennis M. Kelleher
Co-founder, President, & CEO

Earlier this month, Better Markets filed an amicus brief supporting Ohio's authority to regulate Kalshi and other so-called prediction market platforms, which are little more than illegal gambling operations. The CFTC has abandoned its core, congressionally-mandated mission of policing commodities markets and protecting America’s consumers. That mission is needed now more than ever, given how unaffordable vital commodities have become. Instead, the agency is using its power to champion these unregulated online casinos: platforms that fuel insider trading, prey on problem gamblers, and inject corruption directly into our elections.

A recent comment letter we filed in court argues that the SEC's proposed rollback of private fund disclosure requirements is precisely the wrong move at a time when private markets face mounting turmoil and investors are attempting to get out due to poor performance. The rollback flatly contradicts Chair Atkins' own pledge to "closely monitor" private credit volatility, and we urged the SEC to do the right thing: withdraw this reckless proposal and enforce its 2024 disclosure rules immediately.

The Fed's stress tests were once one of the most critical and successful post-crisis tools for protecting Main Street Americans from the kind of catastrophic bank failures that devastate households, businesses, and communities. Now they are being deliberately hollowed out and stripped of any meaningful purpose. Stress tests with no real consequences are nothing more than a box-checking exercise that gives the public false comfort while leaving the financial system dangerously exposed. The Fed must reverse course immediately.

Strong bank capital requirements protect against the kind of catastrophic bank failures that devastate households, destroy jobs, and wipe out savings, which is exactly why they were strengthened after the catastrophic 2008 crash. Now the banking agencies—the Fed, OCC, and FDIC—are tearing those protections down. Three sweeping capital proposals released in March 2026 would slash requirements for the largest banks by $130 billion and more than 25 percent relative to 2019—driving Wall Street's leverage levels back toward the reckless lows that caused the 2008 crisis. That's not a technicality. When big banks hold less capital, they are less able to absorb losses, more likely to fail, and more likely to stop lending to the small businesses and families who depend on them.

Better Markets in the News

These [environmental] risks are no more material, but also no less material, than other risks that are important to investors…The climate related risks that companies face matter to their bottom line, and investors deserve to know about those risks and then weigh their significance for themselves.

Fighting for the Public Interest at the Rule Writing Agencies

Each month, our legal team outlines some of the top cases we're keeping an eye on, the Amicus "Friend of the Court" Briefs we have filed, and why everyone with a bank account, credit card, mortgage loan, or retirement loan should be interested in those cases.

Both Chambers of Congress were in DC for the majority of June. Congress held oversight hearings on banking regulators, discussed crypto tax legislation, AI, and affordability impacting American consumers.