Paul Atkins is poised to become the 34th chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate this week.
In doing so, he’ll take the helm of an agency with a shrinking staff amidst a roiling stock market, following Acting Chair (and current Commissioner) Mark Uyeda’s tenure, which one compliance expert called “unusually active.”
In an interview with WealthManagement.com, ACA Group President Carlo di Florio suggested that Uyeda’s tenure (starting after President Donald Trump’s inauguration) reflects his close relationship with Atkins (both Uyeda and Commissioner Hester Peirce worked with Atkins during his initial term as an SEC commissioner in the 2000s).
“They’ve worked closely together, they’re philosophically aligned. And so they probably shared perspectives on what really would be important things to get done early on,” he said. “Just as you see the administration moving fast on what their priorities are, all the agencies are encouraged to move fast on theirs. So, I think it’s been a different, more activist acting chair agenda than prior.”
Atkins was approved Wednesday in a 52-44 vote, following a confirmation hearing several weeks ago. During that hearing, he defended himself against conflicts of interest accusations and his time as an SEC commissioner in the years before the 2008 market crash. Though he’s been confirmed, Atkins has not yet been sworn in as SEC chair.
After leaving the commission in 2008, Atkins founded the financial consulting firm Patomak Capital Partners and became a premier conservative legal and financial voice during his time in the private sector. Atkins continues to serve as Patomark’s CEO, though he has said he will resign within 90 days if he is confirmed.
It’s largely expected that Atkins would focus his efforts on revising the commission’s approach to digital asset regulation and enforcement.
Valerie Mirko, a partner with the law firm Armstrong Teasdale, said she expected matters “with actual investor harm” to be prioritized, compared to the commission’s focus in recent years on supervisory failures like off-channel communications.
“In terms of investment advisor priorities, I do expect a back-to-basics approach, with a focus on fees, valuation and disclosure,” Mirko said. “I also expect continued emphasis on the investment advisor marketing rule, particularly as this rule was adopted under Chair Clayton during the first Trump administration.”
In the weeks between Atkins’ confirmation hearing and his Senate vote, Trump sent markets into heavy volatility by announcing (and partially delaying) a number of reciprocal tariffs for countries (while keeping in place significant levies on China).
Di Florio expected Atkins would assess the implications of volatility on investors and market integrity, including whether it created additional risk management and compliance needs.
“I think we’re going to see maybe more use of the exams program to do discovery sweeps … and understand how firms are being impacted by this,” he said.
Whatever Atkins’ term brings, it’ll be off to a running start after Uyeda’s work, who, despite acting in an interim capacity, has been willing to wade into contentious issues.
Immediately after taking the role of acting chair, Uyeda unveiled a crypto task force led by Peirce to create a “comprehensive and clear” framework for digital assets while slamming the agency’s work in the space under previous Chair Gary Gensler.
In February, Uyeda dismantled the Enforcement Division’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit in place under Gensler, replacing it with the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit, focusing on fraud committed using artificial intelligence and machine learning, social media, as well as blockchain technology and crypto assets.
Under Uyeda, the commission also voted to withdraw its legal defense of a climate disclosure rule passed in 2024, pushed back compliance deadlines for several Gensler-era rules and settled several high-profile cases relating to crypto enforcement, according to Bloomberg.
In addition to Uyeda’s history with Atkins, Mirko noted that Uyeda became acting chair at the same time the commission flipped to a Republican majority with the departure of Gensler and fellow Democratic Commissioner Jamie Lizárraga, who both stepped down around Trump’s inauguration in January.
“Therefore, Commissioner Uyeda was able to begin some of the significant policy changes—particualrly with regard to crypto and operational changes—we expected under Atkins,” Mirko said.
The commission also faces buyouts and staff cuts as Atkins prepares to take the helm. According to Politico, more than 10% of the agency’s 5,000-person staff was expected to leave in the coming months.
Additionally, Reuters reported that Uyeda demanded the commission re-arrange its enforcement and exam divisions to report to deputy directors while eliminating the role of several regional directors, while Elon Musk’s DOGE operation is at work in the agency allegedly seeking to make cuts.
According to Dan Bernstein, the chief regulatory counsel for MarketCounsel, it was increasingly clear the SEC wouldn’t be spared after DOGE’s successful incursion into the agency, but it was still difficult to ascertain where those staffing cuts would be and how they would impact the commission’s operations.
“I think time will have to tell where those losses really wound up coming in, because I don’t know that they’ve been done surgically,” he said. “And you could wind up having certain groups that are affected more than others, even if that wasn’t the intention.”
Whatever the cuts, di Florio said staffing shortages would impact most aspects of the agency, from exams and enforcement to divisions for investment management, trading and markets, and policy and rulemaking. Di Florio suggested the cuts might stymie Atkins’ desires to quickly simplify the agency’s dealings with its registrants.
“Ironically, I think on the policy division front, it may create capacity issues for the kind of relief that they want to provide,” he said. “That takes people, it takes time and it takes effort to review things and think about the relief that would be helpful, and then put that relief in place.”