WASHINGTON, D.C.—Dennis M. Kelleher, Co-founder, President, and CEO, issued the following statement regarding the Senate Banking Committee’s advancement of the nominations of Paul Atkins to be Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Jonathan Gould to be the Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
“The SEC and the OCC are critical financial regulatory agencies that need independent, unbiased, and unconflicted leaders who will do their jobs without fear or favor. Their missions and mandates are too important to accept anything less and the American people deserve no less. Unfortunately, neither Mr. Atkins nor Mr. Gould have provided any basis to believe they will do that job.
“Both the SEC and OCC play vital and irreplaceable roles in protecting Main Street Americans, overseeing our markets and banking system, preventing financial crashes, and promoting a thriving economy. These agencies are mandated to enforce some of the most important financial protection rules that safeguard the investments, retirements, savings and checking accounts, and credit and debit cards of hardworking Americans. Unfortunately, Paul Atkins’s and Jonathan Gould’s track records and responses at last week’s confirmation hearings have raised serious questions about their allegiance to Wall Street’s profits rather than Main Street’s wallets and pocketbooks.
“During his confirmation hearing, Paul Atkins displayed a disturbing reluctance to acknowledge his failures as an SEC commissioner in the years leading to the 2008 financial crisis. Instead of advocating for Main Street, Atkins was focused on protecting Wall Street’s megafirms. As Senator Warren’s questioning of Atkins made clear, he demonstrated ‘staggeringly bad judgment’ and showed no remorse or introspection about his mistakes or the devastating consequences for our economy and Main Street families who suffered unemployment foreclosures, and economic misery due to no fault of their own. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he insisted that deregulation was not to blame for the 2008 crash that left 90% of Americans poorer in 2016 than they were in 2007. On key issues like his vote to allow Wall Street banks to reduce their average capital by 40%, Atkins said he was not wrong and even blamed the SEC’s staff rather than taking any responsibility. Additionally, Atkins did nothing to dispel concerns about his work over the last 15 years promoting the interests of firms the SEC regulates, refusal to answer basic questions about his work for crypto firm FTX, or his potential conflicts as SEC Chair.
“Jonathan Gould raised similar concerns in his confirmation hearing. Mr. Gould made it clear that he would be an advocate for the financial industry over Main Street and that he would support deregulatory efforts. He also echoed recent statements from other Trump-appointed banking regulators that the focus should be on financial data and ratios. This wrongly dismisses the expert judgment of front-line bank supervisors, a practice that has been directly cited as a cause of the 2023 banking crisis. Simply put, the American people should be deeply worried about the stability of the banking system with Mr. Gould in charge of overseeing the country’s largest systemically important banks.”
You can find Better Markets’ background memos and pressing questions for Atkins here and Gould here.
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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.org.
