President Joe Biden's administration has announced that the incoming president will nominate former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) executive for the head of the Securities Exchange Commission, and current Federal Trade Commissioner Rohit Chopra to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Gensler has played a role in the Biden administration since November, when the former Obama-era CFTC chairman was tapped for a role in the President's transition team. Gensler was an influential figure in the post-recession Federal Government, known for an uncompromising approach to regulating the securities sector. In November, during Gensler's original appointment to the transition team, it was theorized that Gensler's appointment might have been an appeal to progressive Democrats, who historically have called for a tougher federal stance on Wall Street.
"His history in the Obama administration leaves him few friends on the Republican side - and he probably doesn't care," said Erik Gordon of the University of Michigan of Gensler.
It would now appear that Biden fully intends to follow a more progressive-oriented agenda in the finance sector after the President announced Gensler's nomination and the nomination of Commissioner Rohit Chopra for the head of the CFPB. Chopra already has a deep history with the CFPB, having previously fought to form the agency alongside other progressives such as Senator Elizabeth Warren in the wake of the recession. Chopra previously served as the assistant director of the CFPB.
The posting of two progressive-oriented officials to critical positions in charge of regulating the finance sector is a stark departure from the mostly deregulatory and hands-off stance of the Trump administration, which has been heavily criticized for rolling back crucial consumer protection laws. If President Biden wanted to send a message that he would return regulation to the financial world, he indeed sent a strong statement with his latest two picks.