FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/27/2025

CONTACT: Jarice Thompson, jarice@ourfinancialsecurity.org 

Senators Must Reject Unfit Candidate to Lead the Securities and Exchange Commission
The financial security of investors, pension funds and working families is at risk 

Washington, D.C. — The Senate Banking Committee should oppose the nomination of Paul Atkins to serve as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a deeply flawed nominee who supported industry-backed deregulation as a prior commissioner that led to the 2008 financial crisis. His post-SEC consultancy raises numerous conflicts of interest and he has consistently opposed the critical investor protections and post-crisis reforms embodied in the Dodd-Frank Act. These problems make him uniquely unsuited to helm the SEC, which serves as the principal regulator of the U.S. securities market and a mandate to safeguard investors, equities markets, and the broader economy. 

Today, 47 organizations sent a letter to the Senate Banking Committee urging Senators to oppose Atkins’ nomination. The signers noted grave concerns that if confirmed, Atkins would once again pursue the deregulatory agenda to benefit the financial industry and large corporations, enable them to operate without accountability, and erode the SEC’s ability to enforce securities laws to protect investors and market integrity, at the expense of economic stability. 

“The Atkins record speaks for itself. When previously serving as a SEC commissioner, he repeatedly put the deregulatory interests of corporate actors and Wall Street above the needs of investors, workers and working families,” said Patrick Woodall, managing director for policy at Americans for Financial Reform. “He is categorically unfit to serve in a role that requires sober leadership committed to the public interest rather than the enrichment of clients and friends.”

Also during his time on the SEC, Atkins opposed enforcement actions to hold bad actors accountable in the years leading up to the financial crisis that robbed millions of their homes and retirement savings. He served as advisor to now-imprisoned Sam Bankman-Fried of the FTX Exchange in the years preceding its collapse that lost investors billions due to financial crimes including fraud and market manipulation, and claimed the issue was a failure of regulators to embrace crypto.

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