“Every morning when I pick up the newspaper and read about an earthquake in Japan or problems in European financial institutions, the first question I ask our staff is 'What is money-market-fund exposure?'”

“I came in with the intention of serving as long as it made sense for me to do so. The election was a natural moment to think about whether I wanted to stay longer, and I'm thrilled to turn the reins over to my longtime colleague Elisse Walter.”

“I don't feel any pressure at all to go along with anybody. I feel pressure to do the right thing for U.S. markets and U.S. investors.”

“I work on weekends, but from home.”

“In my case, there's no revolving door... I won't be going back to government.”

“It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to work with so many dedicated SEC staff who strive every day to protect investors and ensure our markets operate with integrity.”

“The SEC got more than 100 rules to write under Dodd-Frank, the lion's share of all the agencies. And we've moved, I think, with a tremendous sense of urgency. But it takes a long time to write rules and get them approved by a five-member commission.”

“The SEC has actually progressively loosened up the rules and recognized the value of social media, but the goal is always going to be to get information out as broadly as possible as quickly as possible.”

“There are no absolutes in this world, and there will always be mistakes that are made within brokerage firms; there will always be people who set out to deceive the regulators and even deceive their own senior management.”

“Too often, investors are the target of fraudulent schemes disguised as investment opportunities. As you know, if the balance is tipped to the point where investors are not confident that there are appropriate protections, investors will lose confidence in our markets, and capital formation will ultimately be made more difficult and expensive.”

“Under the Dodd-Frank law, the SEC got the lion's share of the rules to write, more than 100 rules, and we have done an extraordinary amount of that. Eighty percent have been either proposed or adopted. So, a lot, a lot accomplished but of course, more to do.”

“We have new rules that give shareholders the ability to vote on executive compensation. We have new rules for asset-backed securities. We have new rules around credit rating agencies.”

“When the SEC needs to be deterring corporate wrongdoing, the 'penalty pilot' program sends the wrong message.”