President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised either to eliminate or sharply cut back the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law, is expected to install critics of the Obama administration’s signature response to the financial crisis in positions at the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins is heading up the president-elect’s transition team’s work concerning the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and other financial regulators that historically operate independently of the White House. Atkins is an outspoken opponent of a range of post-crisis regulations, particularly the Dodd-Frank overhaul, as well as controversial reforms to money-market mutual funds. He is currently chief executive of Patomak Global Partners LLC. Trump’s election likely means a series of unfinished Democratic priorities, such as curbs to Wall Street pay packages, might be scaled back or scrapped entirely. The same holds true for rules the CFTC has yet to complete, such as limits on trading positions on commodities such as gold and sugar as well as efforts to rein in high-frequency trading firms.
