Trump nominates former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins to lead Wall Street regulator

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would nominate Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, putting a traditional conservative and prominent Washington insider atop Wall Street’s major regulator.Atkins, a Republican former SEC commissioner, is replacing Gary Gensler, President Biden’s hard-charging chair whose ambitious agenda led him to clash with Wall Street and the crypto industry.Atkins “believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World.He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.Gensler, who is stepping down on Jan.

20, inked more than 40 rules aimed at boosting transparency, reducing risks, and stamping out conflicts of interest on Wall Street and sued multiple crypto firms he alleged were flouting SEC rules.Atkins is expected to review many of Gensler’s rules, as well as enforcement actions wending their way through the courts, adopt a softer touch on crypto, and pursue rule changes aimed at promoting capital formation.Atkins is the chief executive at Patomak Global Partners, a Washington-based strategic and risk management advisory business he founded in 2009.The well-connected firm’s leaders, many of them former federal regulators, consult with banks, fintech companies and investment firms, among others. Atkins’ personal clients have included Deutsche Bank as a court-appointed monitor and the Chicago Board Options Exchange as an expert witness.Atkins served on Trump’s transition team in 2016, when he was also a contender to lead the SEC, Reuters reported at the time.

He was then among the high-profile business executives on a short-lived advisory council for President Trump.The crypto industry, which poured money into Trump’s campaign, has pu...