Photo: Shutterstock/ALM-Chris Nicholls
Regulatory enforcement "is going to significantly increase" under the incoming Biden administration, according to Daniel Suvor, an aide to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris during her time as California attorney general. "I don't think that's going out on a limb."
Names being floated to replace Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton under President-elect Joe Biden include Gary Gensler, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York under former President Barack Obama.
Clayton left the agency on Dec. 22.
Expect the Biden administration SEC chair "to be more in the vein" of former SEC Chair Mary Jo White, "with many expecting another former U.S. attorney" such as Bharara to be considered for the post, said Nicolas Morgan, a partner at the global defense firm Paul Hastings.
White's "'broken windows' philosophy stressed enforcement action even for minor transgressions, reflecting her background as a criminal prosecutor," Morgan said.
By contrast, "Clayton's emphasis on increasing market access to 'Main Street' investors reflected his background and priorities," Morgan added.
The agency will also be replacing division heads that are leaving. Brett Redfearn, director of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, will leave his post by year-end as will Stephanie Avakian, SEC enforcement chief. Dalia Blass, head of the agency's Division of Investment Management, plans to exit the agency in January.
Clayton's departure at year-end "leaves the SEC rudderless," said James Angel, associate professor of finance at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. Clayton quitting now "signals to the incoming administration that they need to fill the job right away."
SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman, a Republican, was named interim SEC chair.
During his nearly three and a half years as chair, Clayton advanced more than 65 final rules to date from the commission's policy divisions and offices, chief among them Regulation Best Interest and the Customer Relationship Summary form, or Form CRS. Under Clayton's watch, the agency also finalized on Tuesday its long-awaited advertising and marketing rules for advisors, allowing testimonials.
Clayton said on Oct. 19 that he was "cautiously satisfied" with Reg BI but noted that three months after its enforcement date he was noticing some troubling trends.
As expected, the securities regulator's exam division plans to ramp up oversight of brokers' compliance with Reg BI starting in January, including recommendations on rollovers.
Under the Biden administration, "I don't expect the SEC to scrap Reg BI and start from scratch," said Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America. "I do expect [the SEC under Biden] to move relatively quickly to clarify the meaning of best interest, and to do so in a way that represents a clear enhancement over suitability, and to clarify how it determines whether policies and procedures mitigate conflicts of interest."
