In the wake of a massive settlement, chair Timothy Massad suggested on CNBC's "Closing Bell" that his agency needs more resources to ensure similar events don't happen again.
On Wednesday, word of a scandal rocked Wall Street, after the CFTC and other regulators fined six major banks a total of $4.3 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market.
"The banks weren't on top of this; to have some of the largest banks of the world trying to manipulate (foreign exchange markets) is really unconscionable," Massad said.
Under the terms of the settlement, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, HSBC, RBS, and UBS—will pay roughly $1.2 billion to the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and roughly $1.5 billion, or about $300 million apiece to the CFTC, with some paying slightly more and some less.
"If we had more resources you'd see more enforcement actions like this," Massad added.
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In fact, he went on to suggest, that a significant increase in resources may be needed to better police the financial services agency and prosecute wrongdoing.
"You'd see more examinations of critical structures like clearing houses—we don't have enough resources to examine them regularly," he said.
Massad also told CNBC with more resources he'd hire "more economists that understand the markets to make sure we're being proactive and not reactive."
"The American people deserve strong regulation. We have the best financial markets in the world, and one of the main reasons we do is because of strong, sensible regulation. If we don't invest the resources in that—we won't continue to have that."
It should be noted that under the terms of the settlement, no bank admitted any wrongdoing. Dozens of traders, however, have been fired or suspended.
—Reuters contributed to this report