SEC Official Elisse Walter Chosen to Lead Agency

(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama has chosen Elisse Walter, one of five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to become chairman of the agency. Chairman Mary Schapiro will leave next month after a tumultuous tenure in which she helped lead the government’s regulatory response to the 2008 financial crisis. Walter will take over at a critical time for the SEC, which is finalizing new rules in response to the 2008 financial crisis. She can serve through 2013 without Senate approval because she’s already been confirmed to the commission. Obama will need to nominate a permanent successor before Walter’s term ends. News reports have suggested that Mary John Miller, a top Treasury Department official, is among those mentioned as a potential candidate. (MORE: Obama Selects Three Financial Regulators) Walter, who is a Democrat, was appointed to the SEC in 2008 by President George W. Bush. Earlier, she was a senior official at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the ...

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