The SEC and the CFTC are very different animals. The SEC is charged with protecting investors, providing full and fair disclosure of corporate and market information, and preventing fraud and manipulation. The CFTC regulates commercial and professional hedging and speculation. It's an institutional framework. Most obviously, the CFTC does not have the authority to prosecute insider trading, which among other things, could lead to the manipulation of the underlying equities market.
Margin requirements are another area of significant difference.
Given the problems with excessive leverage that led to the collapse of Long Term Capital Management and the excessive margin we've seen in the markets recently with retail investors, it's clear that margin must be equivalent for securities and their futures. And it's equally obvious that retail customers will consider leverage in making decisions about whether to purchase an equity or its future. But single stock futures will be marketed to retail investors. Stripping the salesmen of single stock futures of a suitability requirement would create yet another juncture of regulatory disparity and undermine investor confidence. Investors have come to trust our securities markets precisely because of the vigor with which the SEC protects investors and prosecutes perpetrators of fraud.