Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler will step down from the SEC at noon on Jan. 20, 2025, the day Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the next president of the United States.
Gensler was nominated by President Joe Biden to lead the agency at the beginning of his administration in 2021. His tenure was marked by the rollout of the commission’s marketing rule update, and he oversaw the enforcement of multiple regulations (including Regulation Best Interest).
In a statement, Gensler thanked Biden for the “incredible responsibility” of leading the agency and called the staff “deeply mission-driven” and focused on protecting investors and ensuring markets work for “investors and issuers alike.”
“The staff comprises true public servants,” he said. “It has been an honor of a lifetime to serve with them on behalf of everyday Americans and ensure that our capital markets remain the best in the world.”
Under Gensler, the commission filed over 2,700 enforcement actions and accrued about $21 billion in penalties and disgorgement orders, returning more than $2.7 billion to investor victims between 2021 and 2024, according to the SEC. During his tenure, the commission also recovered more than $250 million for investors through its Examinations Division.
During Gensler’s tenure as the agency’s head, the commission brought its first cases under Reg BI, the broker/dealer conduct standards rule passed in the last year of the Trump administration. Starting in fall 2022, the commission charged many of the industry’s most prominent players (including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS) for failing to supervise employees’ off-channel business communications (such as using WhatsApp and SMS text messaging).
The commission also focused on alleged infractions in the crypto space, boosting its crypto and cyber staff in 2022 and bringing numerous cases (often to the chagrin of crypto advocates). In the release announcing his departure, the commission cited that 18% of tips, complaints and referrals the SEC received in the last fiscal year were crypto-related. The commission also sued several crypto exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase.
While consumer advocates hailed Gensler, many of the industry’s supporters balked at the pace of rules proposed and finalized during the previous four years.
President-elect Trump is a fierce critic, previously having pledged to fire Gensler on “day one” of his presidency (though YahooFinance explained that an incoming president could not fire an SEC chair without cause).
However, Gensler clarified that he would resign at noon on Jan. 20, when Trump was scheduled to be sworn in as the country’s 47th president. Gensler’s term was set to expire in 2026.
Remaining on the commission are Democratic commissioners Caroline Crenshaw and Jaime Lizárraga, as well as Republican commissioners Mark Uyeda and Hester Peirce. Whether Trump will nominate a current commissioner as chair or reach outside of the agency remains to be seen.
In an interview with WealthManagement.com, Mark Quinn, the director of regulatory affairs at Cetera Financial Group, speculated that Trump would be more likely to go outside the agency than opt for Peirce or Uyeda, as presidents tend to want someone they’re familiar with in the top chair.
However, Jason Britton, the founder and chief investment officer of Reflection Asset Management, speculated that Trump would elevate Peirce for the job, considering he nominated her to the commission during his first term.
“She would be the natural heir given that she was appointed by him to start with,” he said.
According to Coinbase, Trump is also considering Teresa Goody Guillén, who served as an attorney in the office of the general counsel at the SEC from 2009 to 2011 under then-SEC Chair Mary Shapiro and is currently a partner with the D.C.-based law firm BakerHostelter and a co-leader of the firm’s Blockchain team.
