Thursday, December 18, 2008

Obama to Appoint Mary Schapiro Chair of SEC

Mary Schapiro, a top brokerage regulator tapped to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is likely to promote an overhaul of the nation’s financial-market regulations, including a possible merger of the SEC with the agency that oversees commodities trading.

President-elect Barack Obama announced Schapiro’s choice as SEC chairman at a Chicago news conference, saying she will provide “new ideas, new reforms and new spirit of accountability” at the SEC. Obama named Gary Gensler, a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary, to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees $5 trillion in trades.

Schapiro, 53, will inherit an agency that’s become a flashpoint for criticism of the government’s failure to prevent the financial-market meltdown. The SEC is under fire for not halting the collapse of two of the nation’s biggest investment banks and missing a $50 billion fraud.

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