Gary Genslerpresident of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal stock exchange supervisory body in the United States, announced his resignation in view of the arrival of Donald Trump. In a statement, the banker who headed the SEC for four years declared that he will leave office on January 20, 2025, the day of the inauguration of the US president-elect.
Farewell to the SEC
“The Securities and Exchange Commission is an extraordinary agency – reads Gensler’s statement – The staff and the Commission are deeply mission-oriented, focused on protecting investors, facilitating capital formation and ensuring that markets function both for investors and issuers. The staff is made up of real people public servant. It has been a lifelong honor to serve with them on behalf of everyday Americans and ensure our capital markets remain the best in the world.”
“I thank President Biden for entrusting me with this incredible responsibility. The SEC respected our mission and enforced the law without fear or favour” he added, announcing his farewell in view of Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House.
Appointed by the outgoing president Joe BidenGary Gensler began his term as the 33rd chairman of the SEC on April 17, 2021, immediately after the GameStop market phenomenon.
Previously, the former professor of the Practice of Global Economics and Management at MIT in Boston also served as president of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leading the reform of the swaps market during the Obama administration.
Gensler began his career in Goldman Sachswhere he became a partner in the Mergers & Acquisitions department and headed the investment bank’s Media Group.
From 1997 to 2001 it was assistant secretary of the Treasury and undersecretary of the Treasury for National Finance from 1991 to 2001. From 2017 to 2019, he served as chairman of the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission.
Gensler’s mandate
Under Gensler’s management, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has made major upgrades to the US stock market, such as upgrades to the National Market System to ensure that stocks can be traded more efficiently with tighter spreads and lower commissions. , but also the reduction of the settlement cycle to one day.
To promote confidence in the capital markets, the SEC has also implemented a series of changes regarding corporate governanceincluding updating the criteria for corporate insiders to sell their shares and the rules for when executives must pay back compensation based on misreported financials and for disclosing executive pay for performance.
In recent years, the Commission has also adopted interventions to improve disclosure on the IT and climate risks of issuers, within the scope of the disclosure.
During the Gensler presidency, the SEC initiated more than 2,700 enforcement actions and obtained approximately $21 billion in sanctions and restitution orders, against over 145,000 reports and complaints by the Divisions of Enforcement and Examinations, which assigned approximately $1.5 billion to whistleblowers.
In total, the organization has returned more than 2.7 billion dollars to investors harmed as a result of enforcement actions between fiscal years 2021 and 2024.
