President Biden Nominates Top Financial Regulators, Law Enforcement Veterans

President Joe Biden nominated several experienced attorneys and law enforcement officials to fill key regulatory roles overseeing the banking, securities, and insurance industries. The nominees bring decades of expertise in areas like financial fraud investigations, corporate compliance, and consumer protection.

Headlining the list of nominations is Christy Goldsmith Romero, Biden's pick to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Goldsmith Romero is a former special inspector general who led the oversight of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as the Wall Street bailout, following the 2008 financial crisis.

During her decade-long tenure, Goldsmith Romero's team conducted hundreds of investigations into financial institutions, recovering over $11 billion and leading to criminal charges against 465 individuals, including 75 bankers. Prior to that role, she spent six years at the Securities and Exchange Commission, advising chairs Mary Schapiro and Christopher Cox.

Biden also nominated Kristin N. Johnson, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission member, to be Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the Treasury Department. Johnson is an expert on financial risk management and previously worked at JPMorgan Chase and white shoe law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

Her academic research has focused on emerging areas like cybersecurity threats, blockchain technology, and artificial intelligence in banking and capital markets. Johnson has testified before Congress on those topics.

For an open seat on the Securities and Exchange Commission, the president tapped Caroline A. Crenshaw, an SEC staff attorney-turned-commissioner. As a commissioner since 2020, Crenshaw has prioritized strengthening investor protections and oversight of institutions managing Americans' savings and investments.

Rounding out the slate is Gordon I. Ito, nominated to the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Ito currently serves as the insurance commissioner for Hawaii, where he has sounded the alarm about climate change risks to the insurance industry.

The nominations signal Biden's intent to install a team of veteran regulators and corporate crime experts atop the federal agencies responsible forpolicing Wall Street and protecting consumers. The Senate will need to confirm the nominees before they can assume their new roles.

The nominations come amid heightened concerns about instability in the banking sector following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Progressives have pushed for stricter oversight and stiffer penalties for financial misconduct in the wake of the 2008 crisis.

Industry groups, meanwhile, have advocated for paring back regulations they claim are excessive and overly burdensome. How Biden's nominees would approach that debate remains to be seen, but their backgrounds suggest a heightened focus on enforcement and deterrence.

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