SEC Loses ‘Checks and Balances’ after Last Democrat’s Exit
Caroline Crenshaw, the sole Democrat on the Securities and Exchange Commission, left the agency on Jan. 3, leaving a bipartisan void on the five-member panel.
Crenshaw had been the lone dissenting voice on the commission after Democratic Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga stepped down a year ago, a seat that still remains vacant.
The remaining commissioners – Mark Uyeda, Hester Peirce and SEC Chair Paul Atkins – are all Republicans, and Crenshaw’s departure means the commission has lost the checks and balances that members of a minority party bring to the panel, compliance consultants said.
While Trump has yet to name potential replacements for Crenshaw or Lizárraga, the “expectation is that the remaining vacancies will eventually be filled to return the commission to its intended five-member, bipartisan structure,” said Cynthia Kelly, a managing director of compliance at STP Investment Services.
Read the full article in FundFire.
