Former SEC commissioner Atkins picked to lead Wall Street regulator

President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he will nominate former Wall Street regulator Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, turning to one of Washington’s most influential voices on financial policy to lead the U.S. markets watchdog.

Atkins, if confirmed, would be tasked with steering the SEC as it embarks on what is expected to be a new deregulatory age for Wall Street after nearly four years of aggressive rulemaking by the current chair, Gary Gensler. He would also be thrust into a series of policy fights over the $3 trillion cryptocurrency market, artificial intelligence and the cost of raising capital in the U.S.

Atkins previously served as an SEC commissioner in the early- to mid-2000s before launching his consultancy firm, Patomak Global Partners.

He played a critical role in the first Trump transition, helping to lead the charge on financial regulation. He has been an outspoken critic of everything from the reform measures enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to corporate penalties to climate-related disclosures.

“Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations. He 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,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”

The SEC chair has been one of the most highly anticipated appointments for Wall Street since the election. For the last four years, the financial world and the crypto lobby have clashed with Gensler over new rules from the agency and its sweeping enforcement campaigns. The Trump administration is likely to take a lighter-touch approach to both policing the markets and crafting new rules.

In Atkins, Trump may have found a prime candidate to do exactly that. Atkins has sharply criticized what he considers heavy-handed policymaking for the last two decades. And he is seen by many in Washington as a well-connected regulator whose understanding of the SEC could allow him to move quickly as he enacts his vision for the regulator.

Former SEC official Tyler Gellasch called him “the intellectual godfather” of capital markets policy for the Republican Party.

“He’s likely more capable than anyone to radically transform the SEC agenda and the agency itself,” Gellasch said.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement that Atkins "has the experience necessary to lead the agency out of Gary Gensler's disastrous tenure and help revitalize the U.S. capital markets system — which is critical to our economic growth, job creation, and innovation."

Atkins did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his selection. If confirmed, he would serve on the SEC next year alongside two of his former counsels: Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda.

Atkins has played a prominent role in policy debates around the SEC for years, including at Patomak, whose clients include companies up and down Wall Street. He was a noted skeptic of the sweeping reform measures enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, known as the Dodd-Frank Act. He has argued that corporate penalties harm both shareholders and employees. And in 2022, Atkins questioned the SEC’s push to require climate-related disclosures from public companies — a rule currently being challenged in the courts.

He has also been critical of the SEC’s yearslong track record of cracking down on crypto firms, while not writing tailored rules for the high-flying industry.

“He genuinely loves this shit,” said a former regulator who has worked with Atkins and was granted anonymity to speak freely. “He loves thinking about it. He loves talking about it."

As chair, Atkins would likely weigh unwinding parts of Gensler’s agenda and crafting bespoke rules for the crypto market — something Trump himself vowed to do on the campaign trail. While speaking at a Federalist Society event in April, Atkins called the lack of regulatory clarity around crypto a “fundamental underlying issue” that the SEC needs to address.

He also said that a change in administration would likely also mean a move to undo some of the rules enacted under Gensler. But Atkins added that he hoped the SEC would “get beyond that,” too.

“The SEC, CFTC or whatnot can look at its own patch, but it can’t really change the world,” Atkins said. “There are certainly enough societal and economic problems that need to be addressed. I think the agencies have got to figure out what is the highest and best use for them, and let Congress and others figure out what the public policy should be.”

Financial industry lobbyists have predicted that the next SEC chair will seek to lower the guardrails around going public in the U.S. as well as to invest in privately held companies.

Atkins, a graduate of Vanderbilt University’s law school, first came to the SEC in the 1990s. He worked as chief of staff to then-Chair Richard Breeden and later as a counsel to Breeden’s successor, Arthur Levitt. Atkins became a commissioner at the agency in 2002, joining shortly after the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals. He left in 2008.