The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s pick for a new top Wall Street regulator and other key financial nominees who will help carry out his administration’s deregulatory agenda.
On a 13-11 vote, along party lines, the panel advanced the nomination of Paul Atkins to be chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is a former SEC commissioner who has worked as a consultant to many of the biggest financial firms over the last 16 years. He has indicated he would take a lighter-touch regulatory approach to cryptocurrency markets, enforcement, and the rules around how companies raise money in the U.S.
The committee similarly voted along party lines to approve the nomination of Jonathan Gould as the comptroller of the currency, a top regulator of national banks. Gould, currently a partner at the law firm Jones Day, was the agency’s chief counsel during the first Trump administration.
Republicans have cheered Trump’s picks as they seek to turn the page on Biden-era regulators that were loathed by many in the financial industry.
But Democrats on the committee, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, largely opposed Trump’s nominees, citing concerns they would weaken guardrails on Wall Street institutions and take a lax approach to policing financial institutions.
One of Trump’s picks for a senior Treasury Department role garnered bipartisan support, however. Six Democrats joined with the committee’s Republicans in supporting Luke Pettit’s nomination to be Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions, a position focused on financial regulations and policy. Pettit is a former Senate Banking Committee staffer who previously worked at the investment firm Bridgewater Associates and as a senior policy analyst at the Federal Reserve.
Declan Harty and Katy O’Donnell contributed to this report.
