SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro to Step Down Next Month
Washington, D.C., Nov. 26, 2012 — After nearly four years in office, SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro today announced that she will step down on Dec. 14, 2012.
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Chairman Schapiro, who became chairman in the wake of the financial crisis in January 2009, strengthened, reformed, and revitalized the agency. She oversaw a more rigorous enforcement and examination program, and shaped new rules by which Wall Street must play.
“It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to work with so many dedicated SEC staff who strive every day to protect investors and ensure our markets operate with integrity,” said Chairman Schapiro. “Over the past four years we have brought a record number of enforcement actions, engaged in one of the busiest rulemaking periods, and gained greater authority from Congress to better fulfill our mission.”
Chairman Schapiro is one of the longest-serving SEC chairmen, having served longer than 24 of the previous 28. She was appointed by President Barack Obama on Jan. 20, 2009, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
During her tenure, Chairman Schapiro worked to bolster the SEC’s enforcement and examination programs, among others. As a result of a series of reforms, the agency is more adept at pursing tips and complaints provided by outsiders, better able to identify wrongdoers through vastly upgraded market intelligence capabilities, and more strategic, innovative and risk-focused in the way it inspects financial firms.
In each of the past two years, the agency has brought more enforcement actions than ever before, including 735 enforcement actions in fiscal year 2011 and 734 actions in FY 2012.
In addition, the SEC engaged in one of the busiest rulemaking periods in decades. Due to new rules now in place, investors can get clear information about the advisers they invest with, vote on the executive compensation packages at companies they invest in, benefit from additional safeguards that protect their assets held by investment advisers, and get access to more meaningful information about company boards and municipal securities.
“I’ve been so amazed by how hard the men and women of the agency work each and every day and by the sacrifices they make to get the job done,” added Chairman Schapiro. “So often they stay late or come in on weekends to polish a legal brief, review a corporate filing, write new rules, or reconstruct trading events. And despite the complexity and the intense scrutiny, they always excel at what they do.”
As a result of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the agency has implemented a new whistleblower program, strengthened regulation of asset-backed securities, laid the foundation for an entirely new regulatory regime for the previously-unregulated derivatives market, and required advisers to hedge funds and other private funds to register and be subject to SEC rules.
During Chairman Schapiro’s tenure, the agency worked to improve the structure of the market by approving a series of measures that have helped to strengthen equity market structure and reduce the chance of another Flash Crash. Among other things, the Commission for the first time has required the exchanges to create a consolidated audit trail that will enable the agency to reconstruct trading across various trading venues.
Chairman Schapiro previously served as a commissioner at the SEC from 1988 to 1994. She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, reappointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, and named Acting Chairman by President Bill Clinton in 1993. She left the SEC when President Clinton appointed her as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she served until 1996. She is the only person to have ever served as chairman of both the SEC and CFTC.
As SEC chairman, Schapiro also serves on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the FHFA Oversight Board, the Financial Stability Oversight Board, and the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board.
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http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2012/2012-240.htm
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Thank God! Crooked beyotch. Wonder what other corrupt Government-Sachs revolving-door sociopath they will get to replace her? Are we going from the frying pan into the fire? And for the record, just why is it that every chairman/woman who has stepped down from these positions, who we have all seen is corrupt, captured, do-nothing and crony with the thieves, suddenly regarded by the media as a “tough enforcer” when they are stepping down? The media is so sycophantic. It makes me PUKE.
oliver@ipa.net says:
Leapfrog, I have to agree with you. Where is the investigations into the CONDUITS that never took place or that the Notes were never endorsed into the Trusts thus voiding all the Notes and so on. Where are the charges of all the unlawful acts and the thief of all the money?
She has done nothing but make our Nation weaker….she probably gets full retirement benefits….including Obamacare….