“Perhaps one of the biggest open secrets in Washington, D.C. is the virtual absence of African American financial regulators in the United States government.”
New research points to a severe lack of minority representation in top positions of financial regulation, something that “poses enormous challenges from the standpoint of participatory democracy, and economic inclusion.”
A working paper from Georgetown law professor Chris Brummer, titled What do the Data Reveal about (the Absence of Black) Financial Regulators? finds that African Americans have been largely excluded from leadership not only currently, but over generations going back to the New Deal.
“It also shows that this absence is the product of a bipartisan failure to nominate African Americans to positions of authority, and provides evidence indicating that when African Americans accede to regulatory positions it is overwhelmingly the product of ‘sponsorship,’ or prompting, by the Executive branch, not the Senate,” Brummer writes. “The paper reveals a near-total exclusion of African Americans from roles as senior policy staffers in current financial regulatory agencies, regardless of the political affiliation of the political appointees making hiring and staffing decisions.”
Posted by the Institute of International Economic Law, where Brummer is faculty director, it notes that “there have only been short appearances by single political appointees two to three years at a time.”
No black commissioners
There are no black commissioners at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and there has never been a black chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), SEC, or CFTC.
“And today, the staffs of political appointees—whether Democrat or Republican—are, with few exceptions, almost devoid of African Americans.”
He puts it in stark perspective by adding that there have been 141 black members of Congress since 1900, 98 of whom have been elected within the last two decades. At least 140 African American judges are currently on the judiciary today between all levels of U.S. federal courts.
Even across Fortune 500 companies,” Brummer concludes, “despite a slight decrease from last year and slow turnover offering less opportunity for new representation, 11% of new directors on boards of S&P 500 companies have been black.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
