Washington, D.C. – Dennis M. Kelleher, President and Chief Executive Officer of Better Markets, issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement of Dan Berkovitz as General Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”):
“Dan Berkovitz, the SEC next General Counsel, is highly qualified for this position given his decades of varied experience. His appointment is great news for investors, markets, companies, and the U.S. economy.
“SEC Chair Gensler has an ambitious agenda for implementing long-overdue reforms to our securities markets and for prioritizing investor protections. The selection of Mr. Berkovitz sends a clear message that the SEC intends to fight for those reforms and protections with the legal fire power necessary to stand up to financial industry interests that have dominated, co-opted, and too often corrupted Wall Street finance and the securities markets.
“Importantly, he, like Chair Gensler, will attack these problems without fear of favor. For decades now, Wall Street has done its best to transform finance from a wealth creation system for the many into a wealth extraction mechanism for the few. That wealth extraction is too often Wall Street moving money from Main Street investor’s pockets into Wall Street’s bonus pools. Worse, that is often enabled if not incentivized by an SEC that has failed to protect investors, markets, and capital formation while favoring wealthy and well-connected incumbent firms.
“Mr. Berkovitz has a proven track record of successfully defending against those powerful firms, their lobbyists and lawyers, and undoubtedly will be called upon to do so again. Whether the SEC takes steps to address conflicts of interest, to protect our public markets, to rein in abusive short-selling practices, to improve disclosures, to safeguard money markets for investors, to empower shareholders, to bring derivatives and new technologies into the SEC’s time-tested regulatory framework, or to implement many other critical priorities, Mr. Berkovitz’s appointment means that the SEC has the talent to get the job done on behalf of the American people.”
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies – including many in finance – to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.com.
