Elad L. Roisman, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Sept. 2018, announced today he will resign from the SEC in early 2022.
“Today, I sent a letter to President Biden, informing him that I intend to resign my position by the end of January. Serving the American people as a Commissioner and an Acting Chairman of this agency has been the greatest privilege of my professional life. It has been the utmost honor to work alongside my extraordinary SEC colleagues, who care deeply about investors and our markets,” Roisman said in a statement. “Over the next several weeks, I remain committed to working with my fellow Commissioners and the SEC’s incredible staff to further our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation.”
Roisman was designated Acting Chairman of the Commission by President Trump in December 2020, filling the gap between previous SEC Chair Jay Clayton, who stepped down at the end of 2020, and current Chair Gary Gensler, who was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate in April 2021. Roisman’s term as a Commissioner was scheduled to expire in 2023.
“I’d like to thank Commissioner Roisman for his dedicated service to the Commission and to the American public, both as a Commissioner and as Acting Chairman. While we didn’t always agree on policy matters, I’ve come to rely on his judgment and expertise, and I have enjoyed a positive working relationship with him,” Gensler said in a statement today.
With Roisman’s departure, the SEC will have three Democrats, including Gensler, and one Republican member. The SEC has five Commissioners who are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. Other current Commissioners include Trump appointee Hester Peirce, whose term expires in 2025, Allison Herren Lee, whose term expires in 2022, and Caroline Crenshaw, whose term expires in 2024.
No more than three Commissioners may belong to the same political party in an effort to ensure the Commission remains non-partisan, but Chairman Gensler’s policy priorities are decidedly Democrat-focused as Republicans have accused the current SEC of embarking down a path of regulatory overreach, and Wall Street is largely opposed to Gensler’s agenda.
Under Gensler, the SEC has launched a number of high-profile investigations, including one into a planned SPAC deal involving former President Trump’s social media venture. Roisman increasingly opposed Gensler’s policy moves, including recent measures proposing changes to money-market mutual funds, corporate stock buybacks, and derivatives used by hedge funds and some other investors.
In a Dec. 13 joint statement, Peirce and Roisman criticized Gensler’s recently announced Regulatory Flexibility Agenda.
“While Chair Gary Gensler’s newly released regulatory agenda is ambitious in scope, we are disappointed with its content,” the statement read. “It fails to include any items intended to facilitate capital formation and misses opportunities to foster fair, orderly, and efficient markets and further investor protection. Instead the agenda is brimming with plans to redo recently completed rules, add new regulatory obligations, and constrain investor choice.”
Commissioner Roisman joined the SEC from the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where he served as Chief Counsel. In that role, and as Securities Counsel on the Committee, he advised multiple Committee Chairmen as well as members of the Committee, on securities, financial regulation, and international financial matters. Commissioner Roisman worked on drafting several pieces of legislation that became law and played an integral role in the drafting and negotiation of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.
Chairman Jay Clayton designated Roisman as lead policymaker tasked with considering improvements to the proxy voting process. Roisman also championed protecting elder investors and modernizing the U.S. Treasury market.