In a surprise move, White will exit with the Obama administration, clearing a path for President-Elect Trump to name a successor and reorient the SEC.
SEC Chair Mary Jo White
SEC Chair Mary Jo White will be stepping down as the Obama administration draws to a close, leaving behind a legacy of a reinvigorated agency amid criticism from the left.
The departure will also allow President-Elect Donald J. Trump to reorient the SEC.
SEC officials say that during White’s tenure, the regulator “brought more than 2,850 enforcement actions, more than any other three-year period in the Commission’s history, and obtained judgments and orders totaling more than $13.4 billion in monetary sanctions.”
In addition, during White’s time, the SEC brought charges against more than 3,300 companies and over 2,700 individuals, officials add.
White’s nearly four years at the top makes her one of the longest serving chairpersons of the SEC. She came onboard as the 31st chair of the SEC in April 2013, overseeing an ongoing flood of regulatory changes from the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and related legislation.
Aside from White, the number of people at the top overseeing the regulator has shrunk as Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher, Jr., a Republican, left at the end of his term in October, and Luis A. Aguilar, a Democrat, left last year when his term was up.
The Obama administration has nominated Hester Peirce and Lisa Fairfax to fill the vacancies but the U.S. Senate has yet to confirm them. Both nominees are members of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Fairfax would take over for Aguilar and Peirce would fill the post vacated by Gallagher, Jr., on Oct. 2.
A Democrat, Fairfax has prior affiliations with regulator FINRA and a Nasdaq regulatory committee. Peirce, who is a Republican, previously served at the SEC from 2000 to 2008, first as a staff attorney in the Division of Investment Management from 2000 to 2004 and then as counsel to former Commissioner Paul Atkins from 2004 to 2008, officials say.
The remaining commissioners are Kara M. Stein, a Democrat whose term expires next year, and Michael S. Piwowar, a Republican whose term is over in 2018. Industry watchers have speculated that Trump might name Piwowar as the acting chairman until a permanent replacement for White is found.
Touted in the SEC’s release about White’s departure were her efforts to strengthen “protections for investors and the markets through transformative rulemakings that addressed major issues highlighted by the financial crisis.”
In particular, the SEC says that among White’s major accomplishments were:
- Greater accountability and “record actions through, among other things, the use of admissions of wrongdoing and enhanced data analytics and technology;”
- More than 50 significant rulemaking initiatives, including: “fundamental reforms to the money market fund industry and unprecedented new disclosures and protections for mutual fund investors in a major initiative to strengthen regulation of the $67 trillion asset management industry;”
- An “enhanced” examination program supported by new hires for a staff that increased by about 20 percent and the “use of advanced quantitative techniques to enable examiners to detect misconduct by more quickly analyzing large amounts of data.”
- And the completion of “the vast majority of the agency’s mandates under the Dodd-Frank Act and all of its mandates under the JOBS Act.”
Over the past year, White has endured the criticism of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who called on President Obama to fire her because of Warren’s concerns about public companies disclosing political contributions.
Prior to her calling for White to quit, Warren also attacked the SEC chair’s performance by raising “serious concerns” about White’s leadership of the agency. Warren described White’s tenure as “extremely disappointing” and that the agency is not “consistently and aggressively” enforcing securities law and is falling short in protecting investors and the public. White and the SEC declined to comment upon Warren’s attacks.
“My duty has been to ensure that the Commission implemented strong investor and market protections, and to establish an enduring foundation for future progress in the most critical areas — asset management regulation, equity market structure and disclosure effectiveness,” White says in a statement.
“It has been and will always be critical for this agency and the public that the SEC remain truly independent,” White adds. “That independence is crucial to our ability to protect investors, safeguard our markets and facilitate the capital formation that fosters innovation and the growth that is essential to our national economy.”
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