Former SEC commissioner Atkins emerges as a top contender for chair
Paul Atkins, a veteran regulator and influential voice on financial policy, is emerging as a leading candidate to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission under President-elect Donald Trump, according to four people familiar with the transition.
No final decision has been made, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations. But Atkins was recently invited to interview with Trump, one of the people said. Trump is expected to announce his pick for Wall Street's top regulator soon.
Others whose names have been floated for SEC chair include Brian Brooks, the one-time acting comptroller of the currency, and former SEC General Counsel Robert Stebbins.
Atkins, if picked and confirmed, would rejoin the SEC after a 16-year hiatus from the agency. He served as a commissioner from 2002 to 2008, a tenure that began shortly after the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals and ended just before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Atkins has since led his consulting firm Patomak Global Partners, whose clients have included banks, cryptocurrency companies and financial trading firms.
Atkins, Patomak and the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Wall Street has eagerly awaited Trump's pick for SEC chair since his election this month. The agency has pursued a sweeping and controversial agenda under its current chair, Gary Gensler, spurring a backlash from the financial industry and the cryptocurrency lobby. But Trump's choice for the SEC is expected to pursue a lighter-touch approach to overseeing financial firms and the markets.
The next SEC chair will also be tasked with helping to hammer out the regulation of the $3 trillion crypto market. The SEC has argued that much of crypto falls under its remit, but the industry has protested — saying that digital asset trading needs more express rules from Congress.
In April, Atkins, while speaking at a Federalist Society event, called the lack of clear regulations around crypto a "fundamental underlying issue" that the SEC needs to address.
The SEC is expected to have only three members of its five-person commission in place when Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Last week, both Gensler and Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga, a fellow Democrat, announced their plans to step down on Jan. 20 and Jan. 17, respectively.
Bloomberg News earlier reported that Trump's team was considering Atkins for SEC chair.