Get serious when choosing SEC chief

We’ve only just begun. Those words remind some of us of the 1970s hit by The Carpenters, and others of the long road ahead for the Trump administration, currently choosing its vast workforce to help lead this country.
One position of particular interest to the financial advice industry is the chairperson of its chief regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mary Jo White, the current chairwoman, announced she’ll be stepping down at the end of the Obama administration.

InvestmentNews senior reporter Mark Schoeff Jr. recently wrote about the man at the center of making this replacement choice: Paul Atkins. He is heading Trump’s transition team for the SEC and other independent financial regulatory agencies. Mr. Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, is also CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a financial services compliance consultant in Washington, D.C. Among its staff are former SEC member Daniel Gallagher Jr., who became the firm’s president after leaving the agency last year, and Kathleen Casey, who joined after departing the SEC in 2011.
So much for “draining the swamp.”
But this brings us back to The Carpenters. The song lyrics include: “So many roads to choose. We’ll start out walkin’ and learn to run.”
There’s a lot for this administration to learn, no doubt. There always is for a new leader. But this one faces unprecedented challenges in his early days, including getting up to speed on how the government he will lead even functions.

FORMER SEC MEMBERS

When it comes to finding a new chairperson for the SEC, Mr. Trump and his transition team should cast the net wide. He should avoid subscribing to the Republican cliché that everyone in government is incompetent or the Democratic cliché that all lobbyists are shysters.
Mr. Trump promoted himself during the campaign as an outsider and said that he’d surround himself in the top office with outsiders. But getting a glimpse through the miasma of what the public knows about the presidency into its reality has been a wake-up call for the president-elect.
The breadth and seriousness of the decisions before him demand he surround himself with legitimate experts, from wherever they originate, not just yes-men and women and not ideological extremists. He needs to rely on people familiar, for example, with the history of the SEC and its mission “to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation.”

(Related read: The other DOL retirement regulation Trump and the GOP may scuttle)

Investor protection cannot be made the victim of a frenzy to eviscerate anything in the category of financial regulation. Mr. Trump rebuked his opponent in the race for the White House, Hillary Clinton, for being too cozy with Wall Street, but his party’s platform includes killing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and getting rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. One of his advisers has promised to repeal the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule requiring advisers to act in the best interests of clients in retirement accounts.

FIDUCIARY STANDARD

The point this newspaper has made in editorials supporting a fiduciary standard is that what is good for the consumer will ultimately be good for the financial advice profession. In fact, reducing conflicts is what would move us closer toward becoming a true profession.
Mr. Trump will only succeed in his tenure if he doesn’t depend exclusively on people with a single point of view that doesn’t take into account the needs and protections of the people who voted him into office. His choice of who will lead the SEC and other financial regulators should be capable, forward-thinking experts who, yes, may favor less regulation, but will remain a watchdog and balance fairness and long-term prosperity into any decisions on how to regulate the financial industry.

(Related read: The most comprehensive fiduciary FAQs database)

We’ve only just begun. You can rest assured that InvestmentNews will be “watching the signs along the way,” as the song goes, and reporting them to you, day to day.

Related Topics: Securities and Exchange Commission