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As John noted last week, the Senate Banking Committee held a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Paul Atkins to serve as SEC Chairman on Thursday. The nominee’s written testimony noted:

My time in public service and in the private sector has allowed me to see first-hand how regulations, including those of the SEC, affect markets and investors. They can stoke innovation, facilitate investment goals, and create opportunities – or burdens – on businesses’ ability to compete and serve their customers.

Implementation of regulations, therefore, is crucial; it is one thing to write a regulation, quite another for it to achieve its intended goal. Regulation ideally should be smart, effective, and appropriately tailored within the confines of the regulator’s statutory authority. In short, clear rules of the road benefit all market participants.

Unfortunately, lawyers do not speak the same language as businesspeople, or compliance professionals, or IT staff. It takes knowledge and experience to translate and anticipate issues that inevitably arise among these various professionals tasked with implementing regulations.

The breadth and depth of my combined experiences over the decades will inform my approach if I am fortunate to be confirmed by the Senate. It takes industry experience and focused application to ensure that customers and investors of financial-services firms benefit from efficient, effective, and well-designed regulation. Our goal at the SEC should be to facilitate those efforts, analyze their effectiveness, and use our enforcement power to cure and rectify wayward actions.

Atkins went on to note:

It is time for the SEC to return to its core mission that Congress set out for it: investor protection; fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and capital formation. I look forward to an ongoing, constructive dialogue with this Committee and the Congress at large, as we work together to foster a dynamic, innovative, and rapidly evolving financial system, where the United States has the opportunity to maintain and build on its global leadership.

As this POLITICO article notes, Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed Atkins on his plans to divest from his consulting firm, Potomak Global Partners. The exchange was reported as follows:

“Will you disclose who the buyers are and how much they pay, so that we can make certain that these are not people who are just buying access to the future chair of the SEC?” Warren said during Atkins’ confirmation hearing.

Atkins promptly responded: “Sen. Warren, I have abided by the Office of Government Ethics’ [process].”

“So that is a ‘no’ — you’re not going to tell us who you sell it to and how much money you get,” Warren cut in. “Some people might call that a pre-bribe.”

Among many other topics, Atkins addressed the possibility of eliminating the PCAOB (noting that only Congress could eliminate the PCAOB or combine it with the SEC), defended his tenure while previously serving as a Commissioner of the SEC, clarified the extent of his involvement in the Project 2025 recommendations concerning financial markets, and noted that digital assets regulation will be a top priority.

As this Crypto.news piece notes, the Committee did not vote on Atkins and the other nominees following Thursday’s hearing (as is often the case), but instead requested that the nominees submit written answers to questions from members of the Committee ahead of to-be-scheduled markup vote.

– Dave Lynn