The Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the Trump administration’s picks to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in a pair of 13-11 party-line votes.
Both nominees are former regulators who previously worked for the agencies they are now nominated to lead.
Former FDIC Board member Jonathan Gould is awaiting Senate confirmation to become the next comptroller of the currency, where he served as a chief counsel and senior deputy comptroller from 2018 to 2021. Paul Atkins, an attorney and consultant at Jones Day, who served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008, is up for the agency’s lead role.
Gould and Atkins have been praised by the financial services industry and Republicans have noted their prior experience at the OCC and SEC, respectively.
Gould served at the OCC during a period in which the agency revised its regulatory and licensing frameworks, including implementation of the Economic Growth Act, reforms to the Volcker and swap margin rules, capital and liquidity changes, issuance of the Madden rule, and expansion of bank powers.
Democrats, such as Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, have criticized Gould for his involvement in regulatory rollbacks during his time with the OCC. Warren asserted policy changes during that time contributed to the failures of three regional banks in the spring of 2023. She also pressed him during his confirmation hearing about possible conflicts of interest stemming from business clients of Gould’s with strong ties to banks he would be regulating if confirmed.
During the hearing, Gould contended that banks “must be allowed to engage in prudent risk-taking” if the U.S. economy is to remain robust and dynamic.
Atkins, during his confirmation hearing, said one of his top priorities will be developing a “firm regulatory foundation” for digital assets and would plan to do so using a “rational, coherent, and principled approach,” which would align with the approach the SEC advocated with the establishment of the Crypto Task Force. SEC member Mark Uyeda has served as acting chair since former chair Gary Gensler stepped down on Jan. 20.
In addition to Gould and Atkins, the committee voted to advance nominations for Luke Petit to serve as assistant secretary of the Treasury and Marcus Molinaro to become federal transit administrator at the Department of Transportation.