“I’ve never seen the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) produce this many rule-makings in so short a time, ever, in my career — it is concerning on multiple levels,” says Barbara Stettner, partner and head of US financial services regulatory practice at Allen & Overy, and herself a former SEC senior counsel from 1996 to 2000.
As of July 10, and since April 2021 when current chair Gary Gensler took the post, the SEC has proposed or finalised 26 substantive rule-makings, according to non-profit research organisation, the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation (CCMR). Mr Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs banker and subsequent senior Treasury official, already had a reputation as a forceful operator, burnished during his time as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) between 2009 and 2014.