Following several months of speculation, Dealbook first reported this morning that Mary Schapiro will step down as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Chairman Schapiro, who will depart on December 14, 2012, was first appointed as chairman in January 2009 and, as noted in the Commission’s press release, her tenure has outlasted 24 of the previous 28 chairmen.
Shortly after the Commission’s announcement the White House announced that President Obama will designate Commissioner Elisse Walter as chairman once Mary Schapiro departures. Commissioner Walter’s was first appointed to the Commission in 2008 and previously served as acting Chairman in January 2009; her term with the Commission is set to expire in 2013.
Dealbook and others are also reporting that the White House eventually expects to nominate another chairman. Potential successors being mentioned include: Commissioner Walter, Mary John Miller, the Treasury Department’s Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, Richard Ketchum, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FINRA, Sallie Krawcheck, a former Bank of America and Citigroup executive, and Robert Khuzami, the Commission’s Director of Enforcement.
Additional coverage can be found at: WSJ Law Blog and again here, Reuters and again here, FT Alphaville, Washington Post, Investment News and AdvisorOne.
I imagine Chairman Schapiro’s departure, and the uncertainty surrounding who the next permanent chairman will be, is likely to further delay implementation of both pending and upcoming Dodd-Frank Act and JOBS Act rulemaking initiatives.
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