PANews reported on April 28 that according to Fortune magazine, the new chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Paul Atkins, was sworn in last week. Experts said that the SEC's rule-making agenda may undergo major changes, but Atkins has a tough attitude on law enforcement. Three former SEC general counsels believe that the focus of law enforcement has changed since he took office, but it will not be completely shifted.
Melissa Hodgman, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and a former senior SEC enforcement officer, predicts that the SEC will not slacken enforcement under Atkins, with fraud (including accounting and disclosure fraud) and insider trading being the focus. Regulators can efficiently track insider trading with the help of social media and AI, and the enforcement team will pay close attention. Former general counsel Robert Stebbins said that enforcement will return to the focus of Jay Clayton's tenure, focusing on the "mass market" or retail investors, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act will not be enforced this time. Dan Berkovitz and Megan Barbaro, general counsel under Gary Gensler, both said that the SEC will pay more attention to cases that actually harm investors, reduce corporate fines, reduce enforcement of procedural violations, and focus on fraud. Former chairman Gary Gensler was widely criticized for his rule-making agenda, and three former chief counsels expect Atkins to address the regulatory challenges of cryptocurrencies, while also expanding access to the private equity market and raising the threshold for qualified investors.
