Blackstone's Steve Schwarzman: "We are in unprecedented territory right now"

Steve Schwarzman commented on the market turmoil:

"We are in unprecedented territory right now," Stephen Schwarzman, asked about the events of the past week, said at a private equity conference organized by Dow Jones.

"Seeing a firm basically evaporate like that is unsettling. It's a tragedy for the people working there and it is a sign that something is amiss with the financial system," he said.

It was "abundantly clear that the current regulatory structure for financial institutions doesn't work well," Schwarzman said.

"It's a whole series of different regulators that were created at different points in times," he said, adding it needed to be simplified and integrated. There should not be "venue-shopping for regulation," he said.

"When you have all of these rules, and companies are in compliance of these rules, and they're going out of business, something isn't right," he said.

Blackstone CEO says financial rules must change - Reuters